


As Long As We Have Each Other

by hunters_retreat



Category: CW Network RPF, Supernatural RPF
Genre: December Drabble Days, M/M, Science Fiction, Supernatural Reverse Big Bang Challenge, futuristic setting, post-apocalyptic setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-17
Updated: 2012-11-17
Packaged: 2018-01-10 04:06:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 26,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1154684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jensen Ackles barely remembered what life was like without Wacey 1003 at his side.  It had been three years since the two had been bonded to control the Wacey's psychic ability and there was still no sign of him actually waking from the walking coma he was in.  Jensen just had to take care of him the best he could. </p>
<p>Things start to fall apart though as Jensen learns that the military he has worked for since he'd been a Wacey himself has suspicious plans.  When all hell breaks loose and a mission goes wrong, will Jensen be able to get his Wacey back to base safely?  Or will their path take them on a far different journey?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

[ ](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/hunters_retreat/15987196/67719/67719_900.jpg)

“Wacey down!  Wacey down!”  Someone was shouting and Jensen hated the sound of it, shrill and scared.  It wasn’t his voice, thankfully.  They’d been through this too many times for him to panic just because his beta got tagged with a bullet.  Jensen had them settled behind a large rock and he pulled the other man around until he could see the bullet wound.  Straight through, thank fuck.  With the faster metabolism of the alpha-beta bonding, he’d probably be healed up before they could get him to a medic back on the base. 

“We’re fine!”  Jensen yelled out to the group. 

The captain came across to them.  “You boys good?”

“Yeah, we’re ready Captain Pileggi.”

“Get that sniper out of that tower then.”

“On it.”  Jensen didn’t waste more words.  He looked at his Wacey and opened the bond between them, feeling the rush of his mind as it flooded Jensen’s senses.  Walking coma soldiers were little more than sensation most of the time, but Jensen had learned to hold back his Wacey’s sensations.  It was more survival instinct than finesse for an alpha but after three years, Jensen Ackles had it down to an art. 

He took a deep breath and focused on what they needed.  He could feel the power building in the Wacey and then Jensen pointed to the tower.  “There.”  The Wacey followed Jensen’s direction and when Jensen said “Now,” power ripped through the building, killing the sniper and toppling the tower.  

When the dust and debris had settled, Jensen and his beta were done so he got him back onto the truck where the first wave soldiers would soon return.  There was a medical kit and Jensen began working on the man before him.  He spoke softly as he worked, explaining what he was doing even though his beta didn’t show any signs of hearing him. 

The Wacey stared at the railing overhead instead. 

“He doesn’t look so good.”

Jensen scowled at the soldier who had come too close, and stood to put his body between the young man and his beta.  “He’s fine.  Nothing a little rest won’t cure.”

The guy scoffed.  “Rest?  Heard he’s been sleeping for three years now.  How much longer you think he’s going to get?”

The officer sneered at Jay though and it was more than Jensen could take.  “What did you say?”

Behind him, Jay stirred.  Jensen tried to keep himself calm most of the time for just that reason, but he couldn’t help himself.  His Wacey should have woken.  Most Waceys woke after a year, but Jay was apparently trying to beat the record for being the lengthiest walking coma patient.  Jensen was tired of playing nursemaid to a Wacey who should have woken already and confused over his need to hide just how damn close he was to his Wacey to begin with. 

He felt the press of Jay’s chest against his back, the way his breath warmed the skin at the nape of Jensen’s neck.  There was a strong brush of air against the skin of his arms that made goose bumps rise to the surface, the precursor of Jay’s telekinesis as he reacted to Jensen’s emotions.

“Hey,” the guy stepped back against the wall of the truck, falling back into his seat in his haste.  “I didn’t mean anything by it.  Calm him down!”

Jensen glared at the guy a few more seconds before he turned his head slightly to look at Jay.  “Stand down Wacey.”

He would have liked to have gloated a little in the way the soldier had nearly peed himself to get away from his beta, but the pressure was building in the back of Jensen’s head.  It was another sign of Jay’s power that had recently manifested, but there was no decrease in what he was doing.  He knew Waceys were supposed to follow commands immediately but Jay had been having trouble with that since day one.  At first, they’d told Jensen he was lucky.  They thought it meant Jay would wake soon and he’d have a short stint in the empathically bonded soldier units, but it never changed and Jensen was still stuck in the EBs.  Jay was hard to control at times and randomly showed hints of personality but he barely gave any signs of noticing the world without Jensen’s focus to view it through. 

Jensen turned his body half way, using a free hand to pull Jay’s chin around to look him in the eye.  Jay tried to flinch away but Jensen held him tight.  “Stand down.”

A flicker of recognition was all he got before Jay pulled away again but this time Jensen let him.  He felt Jay relax against his side for a second, forehead pressed to Jensen’s shoulder, before the Wacey took a seat in one of the truck benches. 

Jensen didn’t bother to check on him or to see if the other soldier was going to leave them alone.  No one messed with a Wacey.  Instead, Jensen just held onto the ceiling strap and hoped they’d get moving back to base soon. 

 

**

 

“You look like shit.”

Jensen stopped in his tracks and Jay bumped into him, nearly knocking Jensen over.   He straightened up but didn’t look at Jay even though the Wacey hadn’t bothered to take a step away.   He was still pressed up against Jensen.   Luckily, they were in the EB quarters and no one would think twice about Jay being plastered to his back. 

“Glad to see you too, Collins.”

“You just got in?”

Jensen nodded.  “Taking my Wacey to get checked out then I’m sleeping for a week.”

The other alpha laughed.  “Better make sure someone feeds your Wacey or he might eat you instead.”

Jensen gave Collins a small smile, even as he looked over his shoulder at Jay.  His Wacey ate more by himself than any EB team on the base and it was a friendly joke. Jay didn’t eat well in the field though and their activity lately had left Jay too thin for Jensen’s liking.  He was hopeful that Jay’s appetite would return to normal now that they were going to get a break.

Jay’s hand gripped his hip firmly in response to the teasing but Jay didn’t look at Collins or acknowledge the words and Collins didn’t notice his movements.  Jensen was grateful for that.  He knew that he was closer to his Wacey than he was supposed to be.  He was also more easily agitated by Jay than alphas were supposed to be.  Jensen knew there was someone behind those hazel eyes, someone awake and ready to come out and he was tired of waiting for it to happen.  He couldn’t help the affection that had grown over the past three years, though.  Jay wasn’t just his assignment, he was his friend.

He’d fought it, of course.  He’d been a Wacey himself – all alphas started as betas - and he remembered what it was like, the bond with the alpha who’d grounded him through the walking coma and the explosion of power that he wouldn’t have been able to control otherwise.  He’d talked to the other alphas about their experiences, careful to always cloak his own feelings for Jay.  Hell, the fact that he called his Wacey by name in his head – let alone aloud when it was just the two of them -  said worlds about just how far off the path of normal they were. 

“Good point.  Checkup, food, then sleeping for a week,” Jensen said with a sigh.  He rubbed his hand over his eyes, wishing more than anything that sleep could actually come first.  If it weren’t for Jay he’d already be crashed, face first into his mattress, grimy clothes and all. 

A finger brushed over his cheek and Jensen pulled back at the same time he felt Jay’s hand on his hip, dragging him away from the touch.   Jensen’s eyes were on the Wacey at Collins’s side because the girl had actually touched him.  “Collins?”

The man wasn’t looking at him.  He’d turned his back to Jensen to face off with his Wacey.  The girl refused to make eye contact and she gave no indication that she knew he and Jay were there, but she had touched him.  It didn’t make any sense unless … “She’s waking?”

“She’s shown no signs,” Collins said but he was looking her over, carefully cataloging her appearance and behaviors the way they’d been trained to do.

“Looks like you’ll be out of EB soon,” Jensen said, grateful that he’d long ago learned to cover the bitterness in his voice.

Collins turned his head to look at Jensen.  “Maybe.  Or maybe she can see how exhausted you and your Wacey are.  It’s not unheard of for a Wacey to respond to someone in need.”

It wasn’t unheard of, but it was uncommon and Jensen wasn’t hurt, just tired.  Other than a few cuts and scrapes, he’d come out of their last mission fine.  Jay was the one who’d been shot and the bullet wound had already closed up nicely since their engagement that morning.  

“You should probably get her checked out just in case,” Jensen said, too tired to filter his words.  He didn’t need to say it and Collins spun to face him, eyes glaring. 

“I know how to take care of my Wacey, Ackles.  I don’t get mine injured.”

Jensen had nothing to say to that and Collins took his Wacey’s hand and pulled her away.  They weren’t heading towards the infirmary but Jensen had no doubt they soon would be.  If Jensen didn’t hear about it later, he’d check discretely to make sure.  She wasn’t his Wacey but they’d all been through it and Jensen didn’t want her to be hurt just because Collins felt the need to stay away from Jensen for a while.

Jay’s fingertips pressed into his hip again and Jensen realized they were just standing in the deserted hallway, staring after nothing when there was a clean bed waiting for them at the end of their errands.

“Yeah, alright Jay.  Let’s go.”

The stark brightness of the infirmary always gave Jensen a headache and as they stepped into the room he did his best to grit his teeth and ignore it.  His feelings about the infirmary always brought out strange reactions in Jay and he’d been working hard to keep Jay’s … oddities … to himself.  Jensen just wanted to get to his bed without incident.

“Status?” The doctor asked when they approached. 

“EB Ackles and Wacey 1003, reporting in.  1003 got shot in the thigh this morning, passed through, and healed unaided.  He was bruised and got thrown into a wall before that but there was no sign of head trauma.”

“How did someone get close enough to throw him?”

Jensen lowered his eyes and bit back the angry retort he wanted to make.  No matter how he explained it away, the fact remained that Jensen and Jay were in the infirmary more often than any other pair, that Jensen let Jay get hurt far more than any alpha should let his beta.  It wasn’t his fault that they were sent on the more dangerous missions but it never justified it in his mind.  He’d failed Jay again and the doctor’s words just intensified his guilt.

“We’re exhausted.  They seem to like to send 1003 out into the field and neither of us is rested enough to be out there,” Jensen answered, just a bit of anger in his words.

The doctor patted the table, indicating he wanted Jay up there. 

“Come on, Wacey, time to get checked out,” Jensen said softly as he turned to look at his beta.  He hated talking to Jay like this in front of people.  Jay didn’t respond as well if he didn’t call him by his name – something Jensen knew was trouble since it had first happened – but Waceys were notorious for fixating on things and they didn’t like a change in routine.  Before Jensen realized his Wacey had fixated on the name they’d spent too much time alone and he’d become Jay instead of Wacey or 1003. 

Jay didn’t move but when Jensen touched his hand, Jay looked up, making eye contact for a brief second before his eyes skittered off to the side.  It was more acknowledgement than Jensen got most days and he couldn’t help but smile slightly.  “I’m going to help you get up on the table so the doc can check you out.  Remember, I promised we’d go get some food after?”  Food was really the way to Jay’s compliance and Jensen used it mercilessly.  “Eat good and I promised we’d hit our chocolate stash after, remember?  You, me, a bag of chocolates, and some sleep?”

Jay didn’t say anything and he didn’t respond to his words, but when Jensen pulled at his arm Jay went willingly.  Jensen turned him until his back was to the table and then patted the table behind him again.  “Jump on up, Sasquatch.”

“Ackles, you know nicknames are discouraged.”

Jensen let out a silent curse at his stupidity but he just nodded.  “Sorry, Sir, it won’t happen again.”

Something must have been off about his tone because the doctor stopped looking at Jay to give him a considering look.  “How long have you been bonded with 1003?”

“Three years, sir,” he answered even though he was sure the doctor knew.  It would be in Jay’s file after all; the fever that hit when he was 10 and that left him in a coma until he was 11, how his body had awakened then but he’d become a Wacey, bonded to Jensen when he’d come into his electrokinesis just after his 12th birthday.  His story wasn’t very different from Jensen’s, except that Jensen had only been a Wacey for six months – the shortest recorded walking coma in their history – before he’d been shipped off to learn how to handle the empathy he’d developed when the pyrokinesis had disappeared.  It was the same with all the others too, though Jensen was grateful that he’d been deemed a soldier and not one of the medical candidates who spent their days being poked and prodded.  They were supposedly pampered for their trouble, but Jensen preferred a life of action and he knew – even if Jay had never given any indication – that Jay would be the same when he woke.

The doctor nodded.  “It happens sometimes, to EBs who are bonded too long.  Make sure you keep control of it, Ackles.  If you think it’s becoming problematic we can re-indoctrinate you.”

Jensen shook his head.  “It’s under control, Sir, but thank you for your concern.  As I said, it won’t happen again.”

Re-indoctrination might not be a bad idea.  If it was just the amount of time they’d been together, Jensen would sign up for it immediately.  The training they went through was important, the way to care for their bond mate who would depend on them to survive – especially those paired for the military – and the reminder of why the bonds were formed in the first place. 

Jensen’s memory of his time as a Wacey was vague but he remembered the bond.  He remembered the slip of a girl who’d been his alpha and had taken care of everything for him.  The day he’d awakened had been the last time he’d seen her.  Rumor was that Cassidy had taken on two more Waceys since then but she’d been transferred to another base after Jensen.  Rumor didn’t change the memory of her being dragged away, tears running down her face when they pulled her out of his arms.  He knew she’d been moved because of him but even with a Wacey of his own, he had no idea how she’d messed up her role so completely.  He wouldn’t allow that to happen with Jay.  Jay’s first memory of the world wouldn’t be like that.  Jensen would smile and make jokes and tease him about the way his hair fell because he’d shown a real aversion to getting his hair cut as a Wacey.  And when they told him it was time to go, Jensen would say goodbye and hope that what vague memories Jay had of his alpha were good ones.

“Up, Wacey,” Jensen said, patting the table again.

Jay hopped onto the medical table then and Jensen took a step back to let the doctor do his work.

 

**

Three trays were piled up at the edge of the table, resting on a stack of papers Jensen was sure he should attend to but that could wait until morning.  The doctor had promised at least a month’s break from missions, though that didn’t mean they would be duty free.  The doctor had also given them three days of downtime before they’d need to return to training and drills and that was a luxury Jensen intended to take full advantage of.

Jay was sucking chocolate from his fingers.  If Jensen had given Jay more than his share of their stash, no one was the wiser.  Jensen leaned back against the stack of pillows behind him and watched as Jared’s fingers rolled over the remaining three candies.  As usual, Jared’s shirt, shoes, and socks had been removed as soon as they got to their room, and he was lying on his side with his head resting on Jensen’s thigh.  Jensen tried to stop his idle fingers but no matter how many times he stopped, his fingers seemed to find their way back to Jay’s hair.  Jay hummed softly when Jensen did it, the only indication that he liked it but the small amount of acknowledgement from Jay meant something to Jensen. 

Jay opened the first wrapper and dropped the candy on the bed before opening a second one.  He shoved both into his mouth and Jensen chuckled softly at his beta’s appreciation for food.  Jay opened the third wrapper and turned so that he was lying on his back, his head still in Jensen’s lap.  When he raised his hand, Jensen just watched, curious, until Jay pressed the candy to Jensen’s lips.  He was startled by the action but Jay just continued to push and Jensen parted his lips.  The chocolate was pressed into his mouth and Jay’s fingers trailed over his bottom lip for a second before he pulled them back, sucking his fingers into his own mouth to get the rest of the chocolate off his fingers.

Jensen sighed as he sunk his teeth into the candy.  It was so easy to get frustrated with his Wacey when they were around others, to get defensive about the way people reacted to them and how he had to keep so much of their real interactions hidden, but when they were alone it was as natural as breathing to be with Jay.  Jesus, he was screwed. 

“Thanks for sharing, Jay.”

Jay started squirming and Jensen knew what he wanted.  He pulled at Jay until they were both lying on the bed, facing each other on their sides.  It was times like this that Jensen hated the damn bond.  Jensen had a vague sense of Jay and what he might be feeling, but Jared had almost complete access to his emotions.  It was what let the other man know when to release his powers and when to stop, allowed him to be aware enough of the world to protect it and not destroy it.  It left Jensen vulnerable though and Jay always took advantage of that when they were alone.  No matter what anyone said, Jensen knew something was turning in Jay’s head.  His beta had always pushed the bond’s limits and he’d taken comfort in Jensen’s closeness since the day they’d been bonded.  Jared was rarely out of arm’s length and at the end of the day, when it was just the two of them Jared was rarely out of Jensen’s arms. 

“What the hell am I going to do with you, Jay?” he asked softly.

Jay’s lips turned up at the corner, as close to a smile as he ever got.  He pressed two fingers to Jensen’s lips, not pushing but just feeling.  Jay was tactile and for some reason he’d been focused on Jensen’s lips lately.  It was oddly soothing, the way Jay trailed his fingers lightly over the pink flesh.  Jay closed his eyes, smile still on his face as he relaxed with his fingers on Jensen’s mouth. 

Jensen didn’t try to move away and instead he opened the bond that led to Jay.  There was the sense of satisfaction and contentment from the job well done that morning, but over it all was the undeniable affection and joy Jay felt at being there with Jensen.  When Jay fell asleep, he pressed one fingertip into Jensen’s mouth, hooking his finger against Jensen’s bottom lip as if it would stop him from pulling away.

It would.  It always did and Jensen had grown so close to his beta that he didn’t even want to pull away anymore. 

He was so fucking screwed.

 

**

 

“So, what’s the news?” Collins asked the next day as they sat in the mess hall.  Jensen and Jay were eating quietly when the alpha and beta team sat down across the table from them.  Jensen’s plan for the day included finishing his lunch and going back to sleep, with maybe a jog thrown in for Jay if he was following orders this afternoon.  He didn’t want to talk to Collins, especially not after his beta had touched Jensen the day before and he was surprised the other alpha wanted to be anywhere near him.  If it had been Jay, Jensen would have had him miles away by now.  Still, there was gossip to spread and news to be had and none of them liked going out into the world without more intel.  They were trained soldiers, but they went where and when they were told with only the information handed to them.  They collected their own data and passed it around as much as they could.

“We were in some little town in Oklahoma; same dirty hole in the wall as every other town outside of the Great Cities.  There was a small militia building up that they wanted us to disperse.”  Jensen picked up his coffee and sighed as he looked at the bottom of an already empty cup.   “Not much different from anywhere else but they had this guy.  He was talking about the good ole’ days.  Apparently overpopulation and hunger are the good times now.”

He frowned at his cup again and watched as Jared pushed his mug over to Jensen.  He felt a small smile creeping up and he pushed it back down.  He didn’t say thank you, afraid to bring attention to the way Jay was aware of him like that, but he bumped his knee against Jay’s.  Jensen felt Jay’s smug satisfaction and ignored the call to delve deeper into the bond. 

He took the cup instead and drank Jay’s coffee; which was made just the way Jensen liked it.  He saw Jay drink the orange juice on his tray and ignored the way it felt to have Jay take the initiative to take care of him too.

“It continues to amaze me that people keep looking for trouble like that,” Collins said, unaware of the moment that had just passed between Jensen and his Wacey.  “I understand that not everyone is happy living in the Great Cities, but no one forced them into the dust bowls.  They complain about government intervention but they get fresh supplies and there is almost no representation by their local governments.”

Jensen had to agree.  “Yeah, so we go into the town and they’re talking about how the government is stealing their lives and taking their families.”

“They’re still arguing about that?”

Jensen shrugged.  He actually understood that point, even if he did know that what was happening was for the best.  Jensen could clearly remember how upset his parents had been when he went into the fever and he’d been taken to a medical facility in the Great Mid City.  He’d had the fever a long time and he remembered most of it, even if he’d been too young to understand what they were talking about.   

His parents hadn’t wanted Jensen to be taken to the hospital in the Great City because they were afraid he’d die there.  When they were sent letters telling them that Jensen had survived, they’d returned the letters unread.  When an officer was dispatched to tell them he had awakened, he came back to Jensen and told him that his family was unable to accept that he’d become part of the psychokinetic evolution. 

Jensen wished there was a way to reach out to them now, to let them know that he was mostly happy and usually healthy.  He missed them but he knew they couldn’t accept what he was.  His life was Jay now and once Jay woke, Jensen would be free to choose between another Wacey or to get out of the EB.  He could choose a different type of unit or specialize in a way that would let him work solo.  He was skilled and had enough experience out in the field that he’d be able to work into a scout or sniper rotation.  After years of being in close proximity to others, being on his own had some appeal.

Jensen felt something from Jay, something reaching across the bond but before he could interpret it, Jay stood and threw his food tray in a wide arc before it splattered against the wall behind them.  Anger poured across the bond then and Jensen was taken aback by the ferocity of Jay’s emotion.

“Ackles?”

Jensen heard Collins but he was staring at Jay.  Jay wasn’t moving anymore, just staring at the wall where the juice was dripping down onto the floor with the contents of his lunch.

“Wacey,” Jensen reprimanded him but there was no sign of acknowledgement from the Wacey; not from his stance or through the bond.  There was just the buzz of emotion that Jensen usually felt from Jay when he wasn’t trying to open the bond between them.

Jensen stood up and grabbed his beta by the shoulders, turning him so that they were facing one another.  “Wacey?”

Jay’s eyes focused on a spot next to Jensen’s face and Jensen wanted to scream out his frustration.  After all these years together, there were days when Jay was still as capable of an emotional response as a beta on their first day of the waking coma. 

Jay squirmed just as Collins came up behind him. “Easy, Ackles.”

He looked down at his forearm where he felt Collins gripping him.  Collins knew better than to try to touch Jensen’s beta but that didn’t mean he couldn’t find a way to pull Jensen away from him.  Jensen realized how hard he was gripping Jay and knew he’d be bruised if Waceys didn’t heal so damn fast.  He dropped his hands and Jay took a step away from him, eyes downcast as he deliberately walked past Jensen and towards the door.

“Damn it,” Jensen cursed under his breath.

“I’ll get the mess,” Collins offered as Jensen stood staring at his Wacey.  “Just take it easy with him.  I know you’ve had him a long time, longer than you ever expected.  I know what the mics say but it’s not your fault he won’t wake.”

Jay walked out the door and Jensen couldn’t stay any longer.  No matter that he was angry, he couldn’t leave Jay to his own devices.  Waceys didn’t notice things like danger when they weren’t in direct contact with their alpha.  Jay was just as likely to run across the shooting range or in front of a car as he was to go back safely to their room. 

Besides, it was easier to follow Jay than to stand there and wonder about what Collins had said.  He’d heard it before but he’d always discounted it.  Three years though.  Could it be possible that it was his fault Jay had never woken?  Was their unusual bond keeping Jay from opening his eyes and really seeing him?

Jensen ran down the hallway, hoping Jay had gone that way.  The bond gave him some impressions of his beta, but it wasn’t a GPS.  Jensen had teased more than once that he needed one for his Wacey.  Of the others, his Wacey was the one most likely to walk away.  When Jensen had confessed his concern about that, the doctors had told him it was just a sign of trust; that Wacey 1003 knew he could wander because Jensen would always find him and keep him safe, but it had concerned him then as it still did.

He caught a glance of Jay down the long hallway and he knew where he was headed when his beta turned right.  Wacey weren’t supposed to have a noticeable preference for their environment but Jensen had never met an alpha who couldn’t tell you where their beta liked to go to calm themselves.  Jay would rather be outside than inside and Jensen wasn’t surprised when he rounded the corner, went through the door of the arboretum and found one of Jay’s boots on the grass.  He collected it and continued on, stopping at each dropped item.  When he found Jay outside in the woodland garden, Jay was barefoot and had shed the outer shirt of his uniform.  Jensen dropped Jay’s boots, socks, and button up shirt onto the first bench he came across and kept walking down the path.

He found Jay beneath a large oak, his arms spread as he turned his face up to catch the sun.  His shirt rode up slightly, revealing a small patch of skin and Jensen took a deep breath to push down the growing desire.  It happened sometimes, they were all told during indoctrination, but Jensen had never accepted the idea that it was just the growing bond.  The doctors and psychologists said that it happened to alphas who had a beta too long, that an alphas need for physical intimacy grew as the emotional bond grew.  Of course, they also thought that all Waceys were emotionally unaware and they would never believe Jensen if he tried to explain to them just how far his bond with Jay went. 

Jay turned his face from the sun to look straight at Jensen and there was the eye contact that he craved so much.  Jay didn’t look away, just stared straight at him and Jensen felt ashamed of his earlier thoughts, of his growing frustration with Jay and the thought of relief he would get when Jay woke.  Jensen knew the Wacey had following his earlier train of thought and that was what brought the anger out in him.  Jay stalked over to him and pushed his shoulders hard enough that Jensen fell at the unexpected aggression. 

“Jay?” He never said the beta’s name without being sure there was no one around but he had to hope they were alone because he was too startled to be thinking straight; with Jay’s anger in his head and in his eyes. 

Jay stood over him, feet planted on either side of Jensen’s legs before he crumbled down, dropped onto Jensen and wrapped himself around the alpha.  Jensen sat up as best he could and pulled Jay closer to him, letting his forehead rest against Jay’s temple.  “I’m so sorry, Jay,” he whispered.  “It’s not your fault.  I know this is on me.  I don’t know how to help you wake up and I never knew how to be detached from you.  I don’t know how to let you go now.”

He felt the rush of affection from Jay and as clear as if Jay had spoken, he heard a single thought through the bond.  _Don’t let me go._

 

**

 

For three weeks, Jensen thought he was going insane.  He didn’t hear anything else from Jay but he couldn’t quite believe that he’d just imagined it.  Jensen had felt something with those words in his head and he needed to know what the hell was going on.  Other things had happened, not exactly the same, but that didn’t help ease his mind either.  He’d been touched by three other betas since the day Collin’s beta had touched him.  None of the Waceys seemed aware of doing it but it had upset all the alphas. 

If anyone had been willing to talk to one another about strange occurrences with their Waceys Jensen was sure he’d have more trouble than just a fat lip over it.  He was just lucky they all tended to be closed mouthed about the well-being of their bondmate.

He’d started finding excuses to get away from large gatherings of EBs and he’d even started taking his lunch outside.  He told anyone who asked that his Wacey needed to get more sun but he was keeping his distance and not everyone bought his lies.  They weren’t missed though and Jensen knew that.  The EB unit was transient; very few people chose to reenlist for more than their one required bonding so no one stayed long; outside of their Waceys, no one tried to get close.

“Ackles, you and 1003 are cleared.”

He nodded as he stood, reaching behind without thought to pull Jay with him.  The Wacey followed and Jensen took a deep breath, opening up the bond between them as he jogged over to the waiting truck.  He felt Jared’s awareness of Jensen increase and he ran beside him, climbing into the back of the waiting vehicle.

“All good to go then?” Captain Pileggi asked.

The captain was a good man, but the concern in his voice wasn’t for Jensen.  It was for the men and women with them who would trust their lives to Jay’s abilities.  The welfare of a beta might be left to an alpha, but no one in command would be unaware of the health of the twenty three Waceys in service at Great Mid City.  Pileggi was well aware it was their first mission for a month and it rankled that he was questioning Jensen when they’d seemed unconcerned about them before their last mission.

He knew his place though and he grit his teeth.  “Good to go, Sir.”

They took a seat near the back of the truck and Jensen made sure to put himself between Jay and the open hatch.  Jensen didn’t like leaving his beta exposed any more than he had to.  Jay’s knee pressed up against Jensen’s at the same time his mind pushed against the bond.  It was a familiar routine, Jensen allowing Jay access to what little he could otherwise keep from him.  It was part of their training, keeping themselves from the other.  Jay was stronger than the others though and it was why they’d bonded Jensen to him in the first place.  Not only was Jensen the strongest empath in the Corp but he had the best control over his talents as well.  Something he’d learned as a Wacey because of the dangerous nature of his fever-talent.

By holding himself apart, it was supposed to make Jay more interested when he lowered the barrier.  He didn’t know if it was true or not but he wasn’t about to test the theory.  Not when it was their lives at stake. 

The truck pulled away from the military base and Jensen let out a sigh of relief.  He hated being out in the field with a tired Wacey, but now that Jay was well rested Jensen was more than ready to be away from the other EB teams. 

“Alright gentlemen,” Pileggi called as he moved to the front of the truck. All eyes turned to him as he prepared to give them the details of the mission; all except Jay who chose that moment to notice a small hole in Jensen’s right pant leg.  He poked at it with his finger but Jensen just shook his head at the beta before turning his attention back to the captain.

“We’ll travel to Cameron and stay at the base tonight.  Tomorrow will be a half day of travel before we reach the outpost.  When we do, the EB team will be first out.  Ackles and 1003 will destroy the wall surrounding the outpost and we’ll be free to march in and end the uprising.  Rebellion is to be dealt with using extreme prejudice, but children and materials are gold, do you understand?”

“Yes Sir!”

“1003 is to be protected above all else, is that understood?”

“Yes Sir!”

Jensen hated that stipulation but it was said every time they left the base by every captain.  As much as the Great Cities relied on the outposts to provide resources – mostly raw minerals and food – Waceys were still considered the most valuable asset on the base.  Second to that were children.  So many of them died while going into the fevers and increasingly few fell into a coma and woke as a Wacey.  Their numbers were depleting and children were to be saved at all costs. 

Jensen hated these types of missions but he and Jay found themselves on them more often than not.  Jensen understood why: Jay’s fever-talent lent itself to aggressive assaults.  Jensen had been in the same place himself which had made him an even bigger asset to the military when he’d woken.  Even if he didn’t consciously remember the battles he’d been a part of, his subconscious had been in battle and it had desensitized him.  His first memory of battle was vivid, but the first time he walked into battle at the end of his military training he’d felt at home. 

“Looks like our type of party again, Wacey,” he whispered as he looked down at his hands.  No one paid him any attention.  No one paid EBs any attention unless a Wacey was injured or they were in the heat of battle. 

Jay’s fingers knocked into Jensen’s knee and Jensen bit his lip to keep from smiling.  No one else would pay attention, but Jay was there and with the bond between them open wide Jensen let himself delve into.  He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, reaching for Jay in a way he rarely allowed himself.  The bond flared between them again and Jensen lost himself in the comfort of it.  There was affection and the pure unadulterated joy that Jensen had never found anywhere else.  He let most of his consciousness fall into his beta and it was only when the truck stopped, his body leaning with the force of it, that he pulled away from Jay.

When the door opened at the Cameron base, Jensen hopped down from the truck with his Wacey at his side and allowed them to be directed by the medical staff to the EB quarters on base.

**

Although the ride had eaten most of the day, Jay was anxious and Jensen was ready to spit nails.  He hated the anticipation before a raid and Jay was unusually wound up.  Jensen turned the corner of the corridor.  He didn’t slow down as he headed toward the east wing where the newly bonded were kept as they underwent indoctrination and were subjected to medical tests to ensure a healthy bond. Jensen had been told here was a small garden there and that is where he was headed.   Jay was right behind him and they both needed to get rid of their excess energy. 

Jensen had been too distracted by the hectic nature of Jay’s feelings to pay close attention to the directions the nurse had given him though and he was turned around.  He thought they were headed in the right direction, but the base was old.  It had been around before the illness started and once they had a need for the facility it had quickly been transformed and expanded upon.   Unlike the facilities of the Great City, there was no clear layout to the medical halls.  He’d heard it was because of the buildup of the communication station at the other part of the complex, but Jensen wasn’t an engineer to worry about it.  That was the sort of work Collins and his Wacey did. 

“You will have them back tomorrow night, correct?” A voice around the next corner spoke.  The voice sounded low and urgent and it triggered an empathic reaction in Jensen.  He slowed before they could turn the corner.   

“The mission is planned for tomorrow afternoon.  I can’t guarantee we’ll be back in time for a procedure.”

Jensen knew the voice and he looked over his shoulder at Jay who was staring at Jensen’s neck.  There was a scar that Jensen didn’t remember getting when he was a beta that Jay liked to focus on.  He felt concern radiating off Jay and he knew the Wacey was feeling his own anxiety.

“Perhaps we should schedule it for the next morning.  It will take some time to get the equipment and personnel in place and I don’t want them to be waiting if the beta is too tired.”

“Is that a problem?  I thought something like this didn’t affect them?”

Pileggi seemed concerned and that made Jensen creep a little closer to the corner.  The voices hadn’t moved as they talked and Jensen wanted a look at the person Pileggi was talking to.

“A tired beta will have more trouble reconnecting to a new alpha and we want to make sure the connection is established as soon as possible.  A new alpha has already been prepped for 1003 but it would be best if we keep her from interacting with the pair before we begin severing them.”

“I was told this would be a simple procedure with an alpha who was a strong kinetic match.  Why is there a problem with the alphas?  I thought the preferred method of re-bonding was allowing the alphas to pass the bond willingly.”

“Re-bonding a Waceys is rare so the data on the best methodology is far from complete.  In this case I’m afraid it just isn’t possible.  We know that the bond between Ackles and 1003 is too strong.  1003 is likely to reject another bond unless there is something familiar about it.  We decided the best person to attempt the bonding was Ackles’s former alpha.  Cassidy will be a good match for 1003 and she’s a combat veteran with three Waceys under her belt.  She won’t do you wrong Captain.”

“I know Cassidy and the last time she was in my unit it didn’t end well.”

Jensen could picture Cassidy being thrown into a truck and driven away.  Jensen hadn’t been there, but he could see it clearly in Pileggi’s eyes, feel his fear that his men and women would be working with an unstable alpha.  No matter what Pileggi thought about Jensen, he knew the EB team did their job well.  He considered Cassidy a loose cannon and he didn’t want to trust his people to her.

“That was not entirely her fault.  We have reason to believe there were other circumstances at play.”

“So you’ll sever the bond with Ackles and 1003 and hope those ‘circumstances’ don’t come into play again?” Pileggi sounded angry but Jensen was past feeling it now.  He looked at Jay and found the beta looking straight at him.  When he reached across the bond he felt the same horror that Jensen did. 

Jensen grabbed Jared’s hand and pulled him away from the conversation.  He had to keep calm.  Jay needed him and as frustrated as Jensen could get about it sometimes, he needed to see Jay through this.  He wasn’t going to let go of the bond until Jay woke.

He walked in the opposite direction and found their original destination.  The garden was cool at that time of night, but with the heat of his anger, the cold air felt good.  He found a bench to sit on and let Jay pace in front of him. 

Severed.  Never to feel Jay again.  Maybe to never see him again.  Jensen didn’t even know how to process that.  He felt torn open as Jay pushed at the bond, like the Wacey could force the bond deeper than it already was and keep them from stripping the pair of who they were.

“Hello Jensen.”

Jensen jerked his head up as he heard the voice that had been taken from him four years earlier.  The woman before him didn’t move closer as Jay was standing between them and Jensen could feel his power building.

“Cassidy,” Jensen said softly.  His voice sounded weak.

“I’m not supposed to see you.  I could have hidden, I suppose, but I came here for some solace and then you were here.  I’m not as strong an empath as I hear you are, but you’re leaking anger.  Is everything alright?”

He glared at her because through the anger that rolled around in his head and in his bond, he could feel the guilt in Cassidy.  “You already know the answer to that, don’t you?”

“They weren’t supposed to tell you.  Why did they change their minds?”

“They didn’t.  We overheard something we weren’t supposed to.”

Cassidy let out a short bark of laughter.  “You always had the luck, Jensen.”  

Jensen grabbed Jay by the hip and pulled him back, reeling in his anger to calm the beta.  As much as Jensen hated the idea of being severed from his Wacey, it wasn’t Cassidy’s fault and she didn’t deserve to get the brunt of their frustrations.

Cassidy nodded her head to where Jensen was touching Jay and sighed.  “They’re hoping because you were my beta that he’ll recognize my touch from your memories.”

“They’ve got no right to take him.  We’re doing fine.”

“Jensen, they think you’re controlling him.”

“I’m supposed to,” he defended.  “I control him so he doesn’t unleash his power onto the world.  It’s the whole point of being in the EB.”

She looked sad as she let out a deep breath.  “No, Jensen, they think you’re controlling the bond, that you’re keeping him from waking.” 

“I would never-”

“Not consciously, no.  They think you’re in control of the bond because of the depth you seem to have bonded in both your pairings.”

“You mean they’re going to sever my link with Jay because you couldn’t handle the bond?”

“Jay?  Who the hell is Jay?”

He realized his mistake too late and Cassidy’s eyes widened as she realized what he’d said.  “Jensen, it’s gone too far and you know it.  You call him by name.  It’s the first thing we learn not to do.  They’ve seen the rest of it too.  The Waceys who touched you, the nicknames, the way 1003 responds to you at times.  You’ve spent the last three years telling everyone he should wake, but he hasn’t.  They’re hoping that once he bonds with me, he’ll wake up.”

“And what about me?”

“You’ll get out of the EB units and be free to put this all behind you, Jensen.  It doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”

Jensen laughed bitterly at that.  “Yeah, I remember how great it was for you.”

Anger drained her face white.  “That was you, Jensen.  That was your influence on me.  I’ve never had another problem letting go of the bond.”

“If it’s all on me then you can understand how I’d be worried about severing this bond then,” he snapped at her.

Jay stepped forward suddenly and Jensen grabbed his arm.  “Get out of here, Cassidy.  He’s too worked up and I need you to leave before Jay releases on you.”

She gasped, but she didn’t hesitate to run out of the garden.  Jensen had no doubt she’d run straight to whoever was in charge to tell them what Jay and Jensen had just done, but he couldn’t think about it just yet. 

“Jay, calm down man.  I don’t … we won’t let it happen.  I don’t know how, but we’ll fight it.  I’m not going to let them take me from you.  I promised I’d see you through all this and I will.  I don’t care what they say, I am not keeping you like this.  You hear me, Jay?  I want you to wake up and I want you to look at me and smile for real.  So if you think I want you like this, just wake up.  But if not, then you stay like you are and we’ll fight it.  Just … stay with me Jay.  Come back to me here.”

He felt Jay’s mind struggle away from the anger and pain that he wanted to rip into but Jay worked his way back from it until he was settled firmly in Jensen’s thoughts.  Jensen sat down on the ground and Jay followed him, settling with their backs against the stone bench Jensen had been sitting on earlier.  They sat pressed together from ankle to shoulder as they both closed out the world and united in the bond between them.

**

No one said anything to them when they returned to their quarters that night, nor did they say anything the next morning when Jensen led his beta to the mess hall.  Jensen wondered if Cassidy had kept their conversation to herself.  It was possible. They were already taking Jay from him so she didn’t need to warn anyone about their inappropriate relationship. 

When they boarded the truck Pileggi was watching them with growing anxiety.  Jensen ignored it but Jay was antsy again in ways that had nothing to do with the mission.  Jensen let out a deep breath because he’d never had such a strong, clear understanding of other’s emotions before.  Yes, he was a strong empath but he was a touch empath who needed to have some form of physical contact to explore the bond.  He shouldn’t be able to feel Pileggi but last night and this morning he knew exactly what the man was feeling. 

Jay bumped into him where they sat on the truck and Jensen pulled himself out of his thoughts.  He needed to stay focused on the problem at hand.  There was no way he was letting them sever the bond between them.  He wasn’t sure what he could do to stop it, but he had to try. 

“Alright, now that we’re moving.”  Pileggi stood in the center of the truck for his regular pre-operation speech and Jensen tried to focus on what he was talking about.  “These people are considered a prime target for the Unified Cities.  The word we have is that the entire village is a network of traitors and movers.  We need to keep as much of the buildings in tact as possible to find proof of their underground.  Is that understood?”

“Yes, Sir!”

Jensen mumbled the words with the others but he couldn’t help but wonder if they were really getting close to the mover underground.  They’d been hunting for it for years but if they had ever found one of the villages they hadn’t realized it.  The movers found fever children and hid them from the doctors that went from village to village based on rumors of symptoms.  Children were a commodity that couldn’t be risked and yet the movers kept the fever-touched from getting the help they needed.  They claimed that the Unified Cities stole their children and forced them into servitude.     

They’d never had word of Waceys outside of the Great Cities, though, so whatever the movers were doing, it wasn’t helping the children they hid away.  They were dying of the fever and the human race was slowly dying out because of it.

“The EBs will be first out to take care of the wall they’ve built around the village.  Snipers out before we head in to protect Ackles and 1003.  Ackles, the wall is yours.  Get us in then get 1003 out of range of the weapons fire.  Understood?”

“Sir, yes, Sir!” the soldiers answered back. 

It was a few hours of drive time to reach their destination and Jensen had too much time to worry about their situation.  The soldiers tried to make small talk but he wasn’t in the mood for it today.  Some of the men were still new to the unit and they didn’t know much about the EB pairs so they tried to get him to open up.  Jensen couldn’t seem to keep focused on their conversation, though.  He was feeling too much from everyone so he began to cut himself off, pulling further into the bond with Jay.  There, at least, he was safe.  He knew what to expect from Jay and his emotions.  Jay was a steady presence in the back of his head. 

The soldiers kept to themselves after that, realizing that Jensen wasn’t the talkative type.  The soldiers who’d been with them before laughed about it, telling the newbies to let it go.  The EB kept to themselves and that was all there was to it.  Jensen wanted to remind them that mics liked to pick on Wacey if they were ever caught wandering alone and that more than once Jensen had walked in to find another alpha being cornered by soldiers.  It was harmless hazing but no military personnel were as protective as alphas were of their betas.  Alphas were trained to keep their Wacey from releasing on the public though and that included the military dicks that liked to push the newer alphas and betas around.

The motion of the truck stopped and Jensen watched as four men got out, running forward to get into position.  Jensen watched the snipers go with a heavy sigh.  The soldiers around them were getting ready for the engagement and Jensen was still no closer to figuring out what to do than when he found out they were planning to sever the connection he had with Jay. 

He checked his weapon before looking at Jay.  The Wacey was staring at one of the soldiers.  Jensen poked him in the thigh because the soldier was aware of Jay and seemed disturbed by the attention.  Jay looked down to his hands and Jensen felt a poke at their bond.  Jensen opened it up then, allowing Jay all the way in. 

He couldn’t lose himself in the bond now, not the way he had the night before and not the way he had when they were traveling to Cameron during the day.  He needed to stay focused and in control so they could get the job done. 

The truck moved on again and Jensen was tense as he waited.  When the truck stopped again there was just a nod from Pileggi that it was time for them to go.  Jensen stood up and Jay was right behind him, in tune in ways that only the heightened awareness of combat made him.

Jensen was first out of the truck, weapon raised in case the scouts had missed any activity on the wall.  The gate was closed as was common.  They were only opened when necessary.  Jay could easily take the gates down, but the Captain wanted the wall removed so they couldn’t rebuild.  Replacing the gate would be too easy and he wanted to make sure the people inside didn’t have a chance at a second uprising.

Jay was behind him a second later and Jensen took a deep breath.  He walked forward and felt the power building in Jay. 

“Stand down, soldiers!” a voice over the wall called out.  “We don’t want to hurt you but we will defend ourselves.”

Jensen let out a deep breath.  “Now,” he breathed the word out and felt Jay’s power pushing forward.  The air crackled around them and Jensen felt the whiplash of power as lightning struck the wall.  The sound was deafening as the wall weakened and crumbled to the ground.  Jay struck again as Jensen instructed him to hit the gates with the second strike to give the men a way in.  Screams filled the air and then gunfire rang out from the men as they left the truck and began working into the village. 

Jensen kept his focus on the walls and was surprised by the military efficiency of the men and women who stood on it.  No matter how effective the villagers were though, Jensen knew they would be no match for the soldiers that poured into their homes. 

A detonation rang out to their left and Jensen’s head snapped up, trying to find the source of it.  Soldiers were on the ground and Jensen could see the open crater caused by the blast.  They hadn’t been told that the villagers had such weapons but Jensen grabbed Jay by the hand and began running back towards the truck.  He was almost there when the ground under his feet seemed to shift and he was thrown.  The noise blacked out everything else and pain exploded over his body. 

He looked up, trying to find Jay but his mind was a deep echo of the pain all around him.  Jensen struggled to regain his control, to find Jay.  Soldiers were falling back all around him but Jensen couldn’t gather the strength to follow them.  Panic settled into him and he knew he was going to be left behind.  He followed the panic in his head and found the source of it, found Jay ahead with two soldiers pushing him back towards the trucks with a guard of men in front of them, protecting Jay against the villagers.

Jay stopped moving for a second and Jensen felt the power building up again.  “Jay!  No!”

The power rained down on the soldiers between them even as Jensen screamed.  The brilliance of the light blinded him momentarily before the pain swept in again.  As the lights began to fade, Jensen thought he saw Jay coming for him, but the pain took over and he slipped out of consciousness.

 

**

Jensen opened his eyes and tried to make sense of what he was seeing.  The room was dark but not so dark that he couldn’t make out a figure by his side.  Jensen’s head hurt and the bond was blurry, but he knew Jay was still with him.  He tried to remember what had happening to them, but all he could recall was an explosion.  There was nothing after that. 

“Wacey?”  He mumbled, trying to wet his lips but there was no moisture in his mouth.  He tried to sit up but the room spun and he moaned as he dropped his head back to the pillow.  The figure moved and Jensen knew then that it was Jay with him. He could feel the beta pushing against the bond.  “I’m alright, Jay,” he said softly.

Jay moved to sit beside him and one of his large hands pushed under Jensen’s head, cradling his skull as he tipped his head up.  A glass was brought to his lips and Jensen drank slowly.  He drank that way for a few minutes before Jay set his head back down on the pillow.  He wanted to ask questions but he could already feel his eyes closing.

“Stay close, Jay,” he managed to say before he fell asleep.

 

**

 

Jensen wasn’t sure how long he’d been out.  There were times when he felt he was almost awake and times when he was sure he was dreaming, but one thing was steady at all times: Jay.  The beta was with him and Jensen took comfort in that thought. 

He didn’t want to think about those last few moments, when the lightning had killed their own men and Jay had run to him.  Jensen didn’t know what happened after that, but he wasn’t in a bed in Cameron.  Wherever they were, it was run down.  The ceiling looked like it hadn’t seen a paint job in years and the walls weren’t much better.  It looked stable though, not likely to cave in from what he could see.  He let out a deep breath and tried to prop himself up.  His head ached and his body hurt but he’d expected that.  He hadn’t expected Jay to walk in at that moment, to look him up and down, then come back with a glass of water.

He held the glass for Jensen and when he was done drinking Jay sat next to him on the bed, watching him.  It was different than all the times that Jay had watched him before and it wasn’t until he reached for the bond that he knew why.  He gasped at the awareness of the mind on the other side of the bond.

“Jay?”

The young man smiled at him, revealing a straight line of teeth and dimples.  “Jared, actually.  Where did you get Jay?”

“Your file.  J. Padalecki.  I wasn’t supposed to see it but I got someone to sneak me a copy for a few minutes.  They didn’t have a first name listed and I figured I couldn’t go wrong with Jay,” he answered automatically.  Jay was awake.  Jay was … Jay was smiling at him.

His smile grew and Jensen realized the bond was wide open between them and Jay – Jared – had been following his thoughts.  Not his emotions, but his thoughts. 

“I’ve always been able to do that.  I know you weren’t aware of it, but you’ve been telepathic since I met you.  Most of what you do is with the empathic abilities they assumed you had, but it goes deeper.  It’s been growing stronger which is why the Waceys keep responding to you.  They can feel the difference.”

“I … wait.  Where are we?  What happened?”  Jensen wasn’t sure he could process anything else just yet, but he needed to know that they were safe.

Jay lowered his eyes before shaking his head.  “They were going to leave you behind.  I guess Pileggi wasn’t worried about getting you back since they were going to sever us anyway.  Goes to show, you were right all along. The officers need more training with the EB units because if he knew the first thing about the bond, he would have known that without you I was going to light them all on fire.  I got away from them when I struck and got to you.  I don’t know if any of them survived.  Honestly, I threw another few strikes at the trucks and a few at the ground in front of the wall to keep everyone from firing at us.  I dragged you out of there and kept going until I found a stream and I could clean you up.  Your leg is pretty beat up.  I found this place and decided it was better to hide out here until you woke up.”

“You woke in the middle of that?”

Jay smiled slightly.  “No, actually, I don’t think I had a coherent thought during all that except to get to safety.  You know how they drill that into us, but getting to safety meant you, too.  It wasn’t until later that I woke.”

“What did it?”

“You were hungry and I could feel it.  You weren’t really awake.  You talked to me but you didn’t really say what you needed because you knew I couldn’t help you.  I wasn’t aware enough to help you.  The bond was wide open and I realized it through you and I just …,” Jay looked down at his hands.  “I woke up.  I’ve been taking care of you ever since.”

“Jay,” Jensen didn’t know what to say but he needed to express his gratitude somehow and his regret that he hadn’t been there to help Jared when he woke.

“Turnabout is fair play, right?  You’ve been taking care of me for three years.  About time I took care of you.”

He felt it then, the joy and unadulterated affection that had always been his Jay.  It made him smile and Jared smiled deeper and it was a feedback loop that had him almost in tears with the fondness he felt for the other man. 

Jensen took a deep breath to steady himself.  Jared wasn’t trained for this but Jensen was and he knew how to tamp down on the bond.  He didn’t close the bond the way he’d once been instructed to do when his Wacey woke, but it was enough to let him think straight again.

“So, where are we?”

Jay looked up and shrugged.  “We’re not too far from the village actually.  I’ve been in and out a few times to get supplies.  They’re rebuilding the wall already, waiting for another strike.”

“You went into the village?  What were you thinking?”

“I was still unaware the first time I went there.  I wanted water and I didn’t have a canteen so I went to the village.  They fed me and gave me what I needed.  They had to know what I was Jensen but they helped me anyway.”

Jensen couldn’t help but smile.  It was reckless and dangerous and just like Jay to do something like that, but Jensen was smiling for a completely different reason.

“What?” Jay asked. 

“It’s just … sappy as all hell but it’s good to hear you say my name.”  His beta nodded and Jensen just watched him for a minute.  “So, what do we do now?”

“It might take a few more days for you to feel like traveling.  You had an infection in the wound on your thigh.  You were in and out of it for a few days so I’d guess your stamina will be for shit now, too.”

“I knew I should have kept you away from the mics.  You’ll be cursing like a soldier.”

Jay laughed then and Jensen dropped back down onto the bed, closing his eyes and just enjoying the sound of it.  He understood, finally.  He understood why Cassidy hadn’t wanted to let him go and he knew he would never allow Jay to be taken from him.

“Goes both ways,” the beta said as he stroked his fingers over Jensen’s face.  “I don’t know why they think they need to sever the bond.  I’m awake now and in control.  I don’t need the bond to keep my powers in control, but I don’t see a reason to end this.”

When Jared’s fingers stopped at Jensen’s lips, Jensen couldn’t help but smile.  Jared looked up at him and his face flushed lightly as he pulled his hand away.  “You should rest again.  When you get up I’ll have something ready for you to eat.  Then we can decide what to do next.”

Jensen wanted to argue, but when Jay lay down beside him, his fingers touching his lips again the way he had before he woke, it was too comfortable.  He was tired in ways he didn’t want to think about, but Jay was there with him and he’d keep Jensen safe.  Jensen closed his eyes and didn’t fight it when sleep pulled him under.

 

**

 

“When did you get clothes?”

It was an odd thing to notice but Jay – Jared – wasn’t wearing the camos that had been their standard wardrobe for the past three years.  He was in jeans and an olive green button up. 

His beta looked down at himself and shrugged though he gave Jensen a half smile when he looked back up at him.  “You were bleeding and I used part of my shirt to bandage you up.  When I started going into the village for supplies someone gave me clothes, too.”

“Gave you?”

“I wasn’t really aware enough to offer money even if I had any, Jensen.”

Jensen knew he was reacting too late.  He was too weak to do much about it even if someone had done something to Jay in that time but he couldn’t help but feel protective.  Knowing that Jay had gone out on his own like that to get supplies for them made him feel both incredibly angry and amazingly cared for.  He was still trying to figure out which one to go with. 

“It was fine.  I think,” he sighed and Jensen knew he didn’t want to say what came next but he was going to anyway.  “I think they knew who I was, who we were.  They gave me another set of clothes, but in different sizes.”

“If they know who we are we have to get out of here, Jay.”

“Jared,” he snapped back.  “And we’ve been here for two weeks.  If anyone was going to come hunt us down they would have.  When I was in the village it was all really…” he sighed again.  “They pitied me.  I brought down their damn wall and they pity me because of what I am.”

“Jared, there is nothing wrong with what you are.”

Jared looked at him for a long time.  “Why was I a Wacey for three years then?  And I don’t believe the crap Cassidy was throwing out there about you.  You were pushing me to wake the whole time.”

“Fine, then nothing is wrong with either of us.  We just … I’m sorry I can’t get past protecting you day and night for three years that easily.”

Jared turned away from Jensen but he felt the beta poking at the bond.  Jensen took a deep breath and let go of his control.  It was instinctive to hold onto it, even when asleep, but he knew that was what Jared wanted.

“Why do you do it?” Jared asked, wringing his hands together.  “Why do you hide from me like that?”

“I don’t mean to. I did, before you were awake.  They told us we were supposed to tighten up even more when you woke, but I’m not doing that on purpose.  They said when you were asleep that by holding back it would draw you further in when we did open up.”

“Which you did when we were in combat situations.”

“They were right.  As soon as I lowered the barrier you always came plowing into my head like a steam train.  Not at all like you’re doing right now,” he teased.   

“I don’t mean to,” Jared spun around to look at him and Jensen smiled. 

“And if I minded, I’d keep the barrier up.  I just do it out of instinct.  It was how my alpha treated me and how I was told to treat you.  It’s okay to keep poking.  I didn’t mind when you weren’t really awake.”

“Yeah, well it’s different when you don’t know better and then you suddenly do.”

Jensen could feel how uncomfortable Jared was with it.  He knew Jared suddenly felt like he was stepping over the bounds of privacy and Jensen didn’t want him to feel that.

“Look, Jared, nothing’s changed.  We were … always too close.  You know that right?  So it doesn’t matter if they wanted me to shut you out as soon as you woke so we didn’t get too attached and make severing too hard.  I’m not planning on going back to get severed, so screw them.”

Jared looked up at him and there was a small smile pulling at the corner of his lips.

“Come on Jay, I’ve seen that smile for three years.  Give me the real one again.”

“Ass,” Jared said, but he was grinning and laughing and Jensen was happy with that.

“Jen, I went back into the village yesterday.  The more I’m there, the more I get the sense that they want us both there.  I think … I think they want to help.  We were sent to rip down their walls because they were opposed to the government’s control of Waceys and the alpha-beta bonds.  Maybe we ended up right where we needed to be.”

“What do you think we do next, Jared?”  Jensen asked.  “We can’t go home after you killed our men and we can’t be sure we’re safe in the village after we blew the wall.  I think we might be better off to just walk it to the next village, lay low, and try to make a go of it.”

“I think you should at least go into the village with me once.  See them for yourself.  Feel them out.  You’ll know better than I do.  I can only marginally tap into your telepathy.”

“You can tap into it?”

Jared nodded.  “The same way you always controlled my lightning strikes.”

“I didn’t.  I just told you where to put them.”

Jared let out a soft snort.  “Jensen, I’ve never let go of my powers until I released on the soldiers who were trying to take me away from you.  You always had control of it.  I just helped focus it.”

Jensen knew his eyes were too wide but he wasn’t sure how to take that.  Any of it.  He’d never heard of sharing powers before.  Betas were severed within a day of waking if possible and there wasn’t a lot of research done on the bond in that context.  The bonds were to keep Waceys from killing people when they weren’t responsible for their own actions.  To think that Jensen had always held that power, that he might be able to call on it now, frightened him.

 “Is it just us, or is this what everyone could do?”

“What could you do when you were a beta, Jensen?”

“Fire,” Jensen said softly.  “Pyrokinetic.  It’s why they put us together.  I had enough experience in the field and even if I don’t remember my time as a Wacey, my body remembered well enough.  When they put a gun in my hand, I hit every target.”

“Your alpha gave you a gun?”

Jensen snorted.  “To pass time apparently.  The soldiers wouldn’t trust me with one until I woke, but she thought it was better to make sure I knew what one was.”

“Your alpha was a little crazy.”

Jensen snorted.  “And yours isn’t?”

“Yeah, but mine is hotter.”

Jensen’s mouth dropped open.  He had no idea what to say to that.  Jared just laughed.  “I didn’t fixate on your lips because they were soft to touch Jensen,” Jared said as he threw a new set of clothes at him.  Jensen caught them and was grateful for the distraction.  “I wasn’t completely aware but that didn’t mean I was dead.  I had plenty of dreams about what those lips feel like.”

“Jay!”

Jared was out of the small room though and Jensen could feel Jared’s amusement through the bond, barely masking the embarrassment.  Jensen let out a deep breath.  Alright, so he’d had a thought or two about his Wacey before he woke but he’d never have acted on it.  Jay – Jared – was awake now though and apparently not opposed to the idea. 

Hell, he couldn’t deal with this just yet.  “Where are we going?” he asked as he pushed his legs over the side of the bed and slipped into the soft chocolate brown pants.  He pulled the green tee shirt on and stomped into his boots before heading out.

The room in front of him was empty but he caught a glimpse of shaggy hair out the door so he went out.  Three steps led down to the ground and Jensen sat on the top stair to tie his boots. 

Jared’s face was still slightly red but his eyes didn’t hide from Jensen.  “Only way to figure this out is onward, right?  So we go out there and introduce you to the village.  We’ll see what we can find out here.  And if they’re getting ready to do something we don’t like, it’s like you said.  We’ll pack up and head down the road and lie low.  I don’t care where we end up Jensen, just so long as we end up there together.  I wasn’t going to let those soldiers separate us and I won’t let the villagers do it either.”

Jensen let out a deep breath and nodded.  “Yeah.  Alright.  Just stay close to me.  I’m not feeling all that secure and I doubt it would help us if I got into someone’s face for getting too close to you.”

Jared nodded and Jensen knew he understood.  After three years of protecting Jared, Jensen needed time to reel in his instincts.  He hoped he could anyway. 

Jared laughed at his thought but bumped his shoulder to Jensen’s as he stood.  They started walking to the village and Jensen just hoped that Jared knew what he was getting them into.

 

**

 

Jensen followed Jay through what looked like an animal trail.  He could see Jay’s footprints in the dirt and wondered if his Wacey – his beta – would want to continue with his military training the way Jensen had.  He could train Jay, he knew that, if the man wanted it.  They were going to have a different life now so he knew he’d have to train Jay to some extent.  He needed to be able to protect himself. 

The path opened up into a dirt alley way and Jay led Jensen through without hesitation.  He stopped at the end of the alley and looked at Jensen.  “We should go to the inn first.  We can get some real food for you there and you can meet Samantha.”

“Samantha?”

“She runs the inn.  She’s the one that gave me the clothes.”

Jensen didn’t like any of it, but that was mostly because Jay had been out on his own without Jensen to take care of him.  He could feel Jay’s amusement followed by a small amount of smugness at having managed as well as he had. 

“Is she going to be happy to see me, or trying to keep you to herself?”

Jay laughed.  “She’s the mothering type.  I think she’ll be very happy to have someone else to take care of.”

The village was better than some that Jensen had seen but it was still nothing compared to the Great Cities.  Jensen missed the clean sidewalks and clear streets, the store after store of modern conveniences, but this could be freedom and that was something he would never find in the Cities again. 

The street was dirty and dusty and Jared led him straight through.  Two people waved at Jay and his beta waved back with a smile.  Jensen wanted to push himself in front of Jay and keep him away from the strangers but he knew it wasn’t his place to do that anymore. 

No wonder they separated alphas from their Waceys so soon after they woke.  Jensen was having a hard time dealing with Jay – Jared – and his friendly personality.  Throw in his need to protect and the unusually strong bond between them and Jensen wondered if he’d have been able to let go of Jay if it had gone as Pileggi wanted. 

Jay stopped walking and Jensen almost ran into him.  There was anger in the way Jay’s shoulders tensed and his eyes were a flash of heat as he looked over his shoulder at Jensen.  “It didn’t go his way and I would never have let it,” he hissed. 

“Jay, I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to think of it like that.  I just … you don’t know what it’s like.  You’ve been asleep for three years but you were mine to care for.  I was trained for this and everything I feel goes against that training.  I’m not saying I would do it the other way, but I can’t help comparing what is to what I was told would be.”

Jared dropped his eyes but didn’t say anything else as they started walking again.  Jensen felt like one of the mics now, but he couldn’t keep every stray thought out of his head.  If Jay was going to take up residence in his head then he was just going to have to get used to it.

Oddly enough, the idea of Jared doing just that was a comfort and not the horror he thought it would be.

Jay walked up a set of stairs and pushed open the door of one of the larger buildings in the village.  Nothing looked new but everything was in working order.  Well cared for, even if times were tough.

“Jared,” a woman called.  Before Jensen knew what was happening, Jared had crossed the room in his giant strides and was embracing the older woman.  She had long chestnut hair and a warm smile that would have set Jensen at ease if it had been any other situation.  He bit his tongue, kept an eye on her, and tried to assess the rest of the room as best he could.  They were standing in a large dining area with a long bar at the back.  To the right was a flight of stairs going up and as the door on the left side of the room opened, Jensen saw the kitchen and the backdoor. 

“Jensen, stop looking for escape routes and meet Samantha,” Jay said.

Jensen glared at Jay for a second but it was hard to stay mad at him.  Whether it was a smile or a scowl, Jensen had been waiting three years to see Jay’s face show emotion.  Each time it happened he felt himself drawn right back to the warmth and affection he felt for the beta.

“Looks like the clothes fit well enough.  I’ll get some more for you boys so you don’t have to take a plunge in the river to get them clean,” she said with a smile.  “My name is Samantha and I run the inn here.  Why don’t you take Jared and find a seat while I find something to eat for you two.”

She started to walk away and Jensen wanted to let her go, but he needed to get something off his chest first so he grabbed her wrist, halting her.  She turned back to him with wide eyes, but there was no fear there, just surprise.

“Thank you, for looking out for him when I couldn’t.”

He wasn’t sure what he felt from Jay through the bond but Samantha’s surprise turned into a friendly smile again.  “I’m always finding strays to take in.  I didn’t realize just what I had when he first came in, but I’m glad he’s alright now.  I was worried about you, too.  We tried to follow him a couple times once we realized he was hiding someone, but he always evaded us.  Glad he was taking care of you.  Too pretty a face not to share it.”

Jay laughed behind him and Jensen shook his head as he let Samantha go back to the kitchen.  He looked around the room and took a seat closer to the kitchen where he could watch the rest of the room. 

Jay didn’t say anything as they sat down and Jensen let his eyes roam over the room and the few people who were in the dining room at that hour. 

“We’re safe here,” Jay said as he leaned against the table.

Jensen took a deep breath and looked at Jared.  “I know you trust her, but she’s not the only one we have to look out for, Jay.  What if Pileggi got special ops to come in?  You wouldn’t know them, but they’d know you.  I might be a bit paranoid but I have a right to be.  They will come for us, and they’ll come for this village because they turned them away last time.  No matter how I look at it, we need to get out of here.”

“We need to know more.  That’s all I want.  You need to build your strength back up.  Once you do, we’ll figure it out.  For now, let’s just enjoy some food.”

Jensen sighed but Jay grabbed his hand on the table.  “Jensen, I was 10 when I was hit by the fever.  I barely remember my life before.  I just need … a little bit of normalcy, alright?  We’re safe right now.  Can you just give me this one day?”

“I’m a sucky alpha,” Jensen said with a sigh.  No matter how much he knew he needed to keep his guard up, he’d never been good at denying Jay what he wanted.  “If we get shot or caught or locked up somewhere though, I’m gonna be singing told you so off the damn roof-tops, got it?”

Jay smiled at him and Jensen relaxed into the bond more, letting himself feel some of what Jay was feeling.  There was anxiety and concern, affection and the warmth that he always felt with Jay, but he knew there was also fear and Jensen knew it was for him.  Jay was afraid for him, that Jensen might get hurt.  Jensen couldn’t help but smile at that.

“What?  I’m allowed.”

Jensen smiled brighter.  “Yeah, if I can be paranoid you’re allowed a little too.”

“Good to know,” Jay answered.

“Some coffee for you boys,” Samantha said, coming out with mugs.  “We’ve got some stew coming out with fresh biscuits in a few minutes.  Would you mind some company this afternoon?” she asked as she pulled a seat up. 

Jensen took the offered mug of coffee and inhaled deeply.  He let out a deep sigh at the rich smell and took a careful sip.  He could feel Jay’s laughter in his head but Jensen wasn’t about to let it ruin his reunion with his coffee.  “Shut up, Jay.”

“I’m sorry, I thought it was Jared.”  There was honest confusion from the other woman and Jensen looked over at Jay. 

“It is, but old habits die hard.”

Samantha smiled at that.  “To be certain.  Looks like you boys have had a pretty rough road lately if I’m being honest.  The first time Jared came into town he looked shell shocked.  I wasn’t sure if I should let him go.  And you,” she pointed at Jensen, “are too damn skinny and pale.  One good push and you’d topple over.  We don’t ask too many questions around here and we’re always willing to take in a pair of strong backs.  Plenty to do.  We’ve got to get that wall built back up and there are always roofs to be seen to and fields to work.”

“What happened to the wall?” Jensen asked carefully.  Jay’s face remained neutral but Jensen could feel his disapproval.  Jay was sure the village knew who they were but Jensen needed answers and he wasn’t about to admit to anything until he had to.

He could see it in Samantha’s scowl as well.  “Damn fool Cities think they can just send soldiers down on us and we’ll fold.  It happens more times than not, village after village leveled for the Unified Cities.  Poor kids doing it too.”

“What kids?” Jensen asked in surprise.

“What do they call them?  Waceys?  Poor things that aren’t able to tell right from wrong and the government snatches them up and makes weapons out of them.  What’s worse is that they start brainwashing them as soon as they wake up too, indoctrination they call it.  Put one in the other’s care and tell them not to treat them like a human being.  It’s not right.  There are other ways.”

“What other ways?” Jensen asked.  “Are you one of those people that believe we should just leave the fever-touched to themselves?  Leave them to die?  At least at the Great Cities they have the medical care they need.”

Samantha shook her head.  “Sure, but what about the families?  You never meet a family whose child actually survived when they were sent to the Great Cities.  Know more than one that claim the government lied when they said their child died and that the government is just covering up that they took their children.”

Jensen looked up at Jared.  The beta’s power was building.  It took a minute to realize that Jay wasn’t even aware he was doing it.

“Jay, calm down man.”

Samantha looked between them but Jensen ignored her.  “Jay?  Look at me, man.”  Jay wasn’t making eye contact.  He was staring at his hands and Jensen wondered if Jay had been thinking of his own family.     

The air around them crackled and Samantha sat back in surprise.  She wasn’t afraid yet, but Jensen could tell from her reaction that Jared had been right.  Samantha had known who Jay was all along.  He wasn’t sure if her words were a fool’s attempt to pull them out or if she was trying to tell them something while letting them have their secret.  Jay wasn’t giving them that option though.

The men and women in the room stood around them, circling and Jensen heard more than one gun cock.  “Back the hell off,” he yelled to the others.  Samantha was telling them the same and Jensen turned his attention back to Jay.

“Jay, Jared, you need to come back to me.  You really don’t want to take a chunk out of Samantha’s inn when she’s been so nice to you.”

The air swirled around them and Jensen knew he had to stop him now.  Damn it all to hell, “Wacey!  Stand down!”

Jay’s head jerked up at the title and he gasped a second later.  “Jensen?”

Jared’s head was swimming with the power and Jensen reached out through the bond.  “Just like we always do it,” Jensen said quickly, moving around the table to kneel in front of Jay.  “Just back it off,” he said as he opened the bond wide open.  Jay fled into the bond and his head dipped down to rest on Jensen’s shoulder.  Jensen hated being so vulnerable, especially with an unknown at their back, but he had to get Jay settled first and then worry about the rest of it. 

When Jay let out a shuddered breath, Jensen knew they were okay.  He pulled back slightly, letting his forehead rest against Jay’s.  “Alright now?”

“I don’t know what happened,” Jay said softly.

“It takes time to learn how to control it, Jay.  You did great.”

“Yeah, it feels awesome,” was Jay’s sarcastic reply.  Jensen let out a short bark of laughter at that, and then got up off the floor.  When he looked back at Samantha there was steel in her eyes.  The men and women around her had dropped their guns to their sides, but no one was putting them away.

He held his hands up.  “We don’t want any trouble here.”

“I think our wall might disagree,” Samantha answered.

Jensen shook his head.  “Knew we should have just run,” Jensen breathed out.  “Look, we’ll just walk away and leave you lovely people to your meals.”

“Boy, you look like you’re about to fall over and Jared isn’t looking much better right now.  We aren’t going to hurt you.  You just surprised us, is all.  I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

“You get a lot of Waceys in these parts?”

Her smile disappeared and her demeanor went cold.  Jensen knew immediately that she had seen more than one fever-talent. 

“Jay and I aren’t like the others,” he said, making a choice to take a seat next to Jay.  He wasn’t sure what was happening, but they knew who they were and they hadn’t tried to hurt them.  He wanted to trust them and he knew Jay already did. 

“We share powers,” Jensen said as Samantha sat down. The others pulled chairs up around them and Jensen let out a deep breath.  “I wasn’t aware of what we were doing, but Jay said that I was always the one in control of his powers.  When I got hit outside the wall, Jay – Jared – was in control of it for the first time.”

“So he fired on the City men by accident,” one of the others said.

“No,” Jay took up the conversation himself then.  “Jensen was hurt and they were separating us.  I was already anxious about that and when they tried to pull me away I refused to go.”

“Why were you anxious about your bondmate?” another man asked.  He sat closer to Samantha and seemed more open to them. 

Jay looked to Jensen and he nodded.  It was all or nothing now.   “The night before the attack, Jensen and I overheard our captain talking to a doctor about severing our bond.  We weren’t sure how to fight it, but we were going to try.  When the Captain tried to leave without Jensen I acted without thought.  I wasn’t aware enough to think of the consequences.”

“That was without thought?”

“Waceys are taught to protect themselves but what most of the mics don’t understand is that to a Wacey safety means their alpha.”

“And what we just saw?” Samantha asked.

Jensen looked at Jay who was looking back into his coffee mug.  “Jared hasn’t consciously controlled his abilities before.  It wasn’t a conscious effort to build them up, but an emotional response.  Waceys are trained to respond to the emotional input of their alphas.  It’s not surprising that Jay’s control of his abilities would be emotionally driven.  He just needs a little help getting it controlled.”

“Will they come back for you?” the man beside Samantha asked.

“Yes, they’ll come for Jay.  They’ll come for you, too.  You defeated them and they won’t take that lightly.  They’ll send more men in and the next time the wall and your guns won’t be able to protect you.  They’ll send someone like us again to break through, maybe even a true telepath to start manipulating people from the other side.  You should clear this village out.”

Samantha smiled as she stood up and looked at the others.  “I think you all have somewhere else to be?”  They all walked away giving Jay and Jensen wary looks, but the man stayed with them as Samantha looked back at the kitchen.  “Time for something to eat, I think.”

She walked away and the man offered his hand to Jensen.  “Jim.  You boys sure know how to liven things up.”

Jensen shook the man’s hand and he realized that Jared already knew him, at least well enough to be happy that Jensen was willing to talk to him.  “Jensen,” he gave the man his name.  “We like to keep it lively.  It gets boring back where we’re from.”

Jim just grinned.  “With what he can do, they gave you time to be bored?”

There was something in the way that he said the words that made Jensen think the man knew all about it.  He focused on Jim, really tried to figure him out and there it was, the sense of emotions that he knew he could tap into, but beyond that were the actual thoughts. 

He pulled back immediately but he knew the man wasn’t a threat to them.  “No,” he said, sitting back in his chair.  Jared’s hand was on his back and Jensen could feel his concern.  He smiled at Jared for a second before looking back at Jim.  “Honestly, they kept us pretty wrung out.  If I didn’t insist on sleeping and Jay wasn’t prone to getting shot then we would never have had a decent night’s sleep.”

“And you didn’t think there was anything wrong with that?”

Jensen let out a deep breath.  Of course he’d wondered why they wouldn’t let them rest.  Even when they were out of the rotation schedule Jensen was kept busy with training.  He still hadn’t really had time to think about the life they’d led.  When he woke, he’d made his choice to leave the Great Cities and the military behind simply because he didn’t want to be severed from his beta. 

Looking back, he could see that he’d been worked to the point of exhaustion.  He could remember watching Collins and thinking the same thing.  There weren’t a lot of alphas on the base but Jensen couldn’t remember any of them getting much down time. 

“Guess we had a lot of insurgents to put down,” Jensen said with a shrug. 

Jim gave him a look and Jensen could hear the “idiot” in the back of the other man’s head.  “You didn’t think there was a reason for that either, did you?”

Jensen took a deep breath to try to calm his reaction.  He didn’t need Jay feeding off of it.  “I get that you don’t like the Great Cities and maybe I represent all that was wrong with them for you, but don’t worry.  If I bother you that much, we’ll be gone by morning.”

Jared was stiff beside him, anxiety rang across the bond but Jensen ignored it.  He had to take care of Jay and no matter how nice Samantha seemed to be, he wasn’t keeping him here with a bunch of people that would constantly peck and dig at them.  They could go somewhere else – someplace a hell of a lot safer – and start off where no one knew what they were. 

“Hold your horses, boy,” Jim said, holding a hand up in peace.  “I wasn’t trying to piss on you, just trying to get you to think.  I might not look like much now, but I used to work in Great East City.  MD. I used to be one of the doctors who tended to betas between the fever and their bonding.”

Almost as quickly as his anger had grown before, Jensen stood up, putting himself between Jared and Jim.  “Did they send you to find him?”

“Boy!  Stop being so damn jumpy!”

Jared pulled at Jensen’s hand but when Jensen turned to look at his beta, Jared was looking at Jim with a fond smile.  “What you don’t know is that Jensen has been my alpha for three years.  I just woke when he was hurt and needed caring for.”

“They let you stay bonded for three years?”

Jensen let out a deep breath and realized that behind Jim’s concerned look, he felt real and honest.  There was no threat from him, just a growing astonishment and flashes of real apprehension.  

“They were going to sever the bond when we got back,” Jensen reminded him as he took his seat again.  If he edged it forward slightly to make it easier to get between Jared and Jim if need be, no one said anything about it.  “We overheard them saying they would sever us and rebond him with someone else.”

“That’s impossible.  Surely they’ve figured that out by now?”

“What do you mean?” Jared asked.

“They’ve tried it before, when an alpha died and the beta survived.  It never worked and the last case I saw, the beta shredded the bond with the alpha as he was trying to create it.  It killed them both.”

“Why the hell would they keep trying then?”

Jim sighed.  “Three years?”

Jensen nodded.  “The alpha who was supposed to take him after me was there the night before we left.  She had been my alpha.  She said they hoped that her former bond with me would give Jay the familiarity he needed to bond with her.”

“She said Jensen was keeping me from waking, too, though,” Jared said dismissively.

Jim eyes the pair of them.  “You sure he wasn’t?”

“I would never hurt Jared,” Jensen stated adamantly.

“Didn’t mean you would, but Jared wasn’t exactly leaping to get away from you, was he?  That’s not your doing.  It’s his.   He liked where he was and even if we don’t think of Waceys as being aware, they know who takes care of them.  The fact that he woke when you needed him seems to make a strong case for it.”

Jared looked down and Jensen could feel his mind swimming.  He let Jared have his privacy though and looked back at Jim.  “My alpha was too attached when we were bonded.  When I woke they had to take her away, crying and screaming.  We were only bonded six months.”

Jim nodded.  “You got out because you knew you needed to.  She wasn’t going to keep you safe,” he suggested.  

 “Maybe.  Or maybe that’s just a coincidence.  I’ve known good alphas whose beta woke in normal time.”  They were silent for a minute before Jensen decided to ask a question.  “You ever heard of power sharing between Waceys and their alpha?”

“Sharing?  No, I’ve seen it on the outside but never inside.”

“What do you mean on the outside?  No one survives the fever or their fever-talents on the outside,” Jensen said.

“They tell you that, to be sure.  Not everything they told you is true, though.  We’ve got a pair here in the village.  We’ll have to move them out before the soldiers come again but they’ll help us get the wall built again before they go.”

“Why?” Jensen demanded.

Jim shrugged.  “I don’t know why they lie about it.  What I know is they lie about a lot of things.  The bond is important and Waceys create the link all on their own, if left to do so.  They don’t need anyone interfering with it.  When the Great Cities is in control of it, they do something to it.  I don’t know how, but it isn’t as solid as it should be.  It’s why when they sever the bond, they destroy they beta’s power.”

“They destroy it?” Jared asked.

“You haven’t lost yours, have you?”  Jim nodded to Jared’s hands that had been swimming with electricity just a few minutes earlier.  “The boy we have here didn’t lose anything when his bond with his alpha dissolved.  It was … organic.  He retained his memories of his time as a beta as well.  When he took a beta, the bond was just as strong.  Only when the beta woke from the coma the bond never dissolved.  They’ve been together a few years now.  They don’t want to lose their connection and I think that’s exactly what it’s about.  Same as Jared didn’t want to lose you.  He only woke when the choice was losing you to death or risk losing the bond by waking.”

“This is … too much,” Jensen said finally. 

“You need time to take it in.  I did.  I found out another way, but even though it wasn’t about me it took me a long time to come to terms with it.  When I did, I left the Cities and I never looked back.”

“How did you find out?” Jared asked.

Jensen could feel that Jim didn’t want to talk about it, but the older man let out a sigh.  “A woman was passing out fliers in a village close to the City.  She gave one to me, told me her son was missing.  I knew the boy, though.  He was an alpha who’d stayed for a second beta.  Smart kid.  Felt it was his duty to take care of the younger ones that came through.  When I asked her about him she said he’d had the fever and she’d been told he was dead.  The thing is, this kid had told me his parents had died in a car accident on the way to come see him when he was a Wacey.”

“They lied to him,” Jensen said, feeling something dark forming in the pit of his stomach.  He wasn’t sure what his face showed but Jim leaned in closer and Jared’s hand was on his back again, rubbing soothing circles.

“What did they tell you happened with your parents?”

 

** 

 

“Jensen?  What’s wrong?”

Jensen let out a deep breath as he sat up in bed.  He was trying to get past the last two days but nothing seemed to be settling right tonight.  Jared was looking up at him and Jensen ignored the way his heart sped up slightly at the sight of Jared’s half-naked body.  When he’d been a Wacey, Jensen had kept him in more clothes than this and he was always careful to turn his head when Jared would dress or undress around him.  Jay might not have minded the lack of privacy – and he sure as hell never bothered to look elsewhere when Jensen changed – but Jensen had never been comfortable with it.  It made sense that they shared a room.  It even made sense, as often as Jay had liked to go wander in the middle of the night – that they shared the same bed.  It was different now though, and there were times when Jared looked at Jensen like he might not mind the route Jensen’s thoughts often followed. 

“Nothing,” Jensen said, pushing aside those thoughts.  It wasn’t like Jared couldn’t feel it through the bond, but the less Jensen dwelt on his growing feelings for Jay the better.  “Can’t seem to sleep tonight, that’s all.”

Jared nodded.  “You’re still worried.”

Jensen let out a little snort at that.  “Yeah.  I can’t believe they’re being so blasé about the mics.  There’s no telling when the military will send another group and they sure as hell won’t back down just because you sent them packing last time.  This village is a target waiting to be bulls- eyed and they’re packing up like they’re heading off to vacation.”

“They’ve done this before.”

That knowledge didn’t help Jensen settle in any either. 

“Jensen, come on man.  We both need to get some sleep.”  Jared pulled at Jensen until he finally lay down beside him.  When they were face to face, Jared ran his fingers up Jensen’s arm before trailing them across Jensen’s face.  When the stroked across his lips, Jensen sighed, letting his eyes close at the illusion that Jay was still his.

“I’m still here, you know,” Jared said sadly.

Jensen didn’t open his eyes and Jared didn’t remove his fingers either.  “You are, but it’s not the same.  I’m not saying it’s bad, you know that, but everything feels out of control right now.  I can’t seem to keep my feet and how the hell am I supposed to protect you when I don’t know what’s coming at us?”

Jared pushed at Jensen’s lips with the tip of one finger, pressing it in and hooking it on his bottom lip the way Jay had done almost every night for three years.  “We’re going to protect each other, and these people.  You aren’t an alpha trailing a Wacey behind him anymore.  You’ve got a beta at your back now, Jensen.  You don’t have to do this alone.”

Jensen looked up at Jared and let out a deep breath.  He felt Jared poking at the bond and he released the control he’d had over it the last two days.  He hadn’t allowed Jared in any more than he could help it, but tonight he needed to feel Jared in his head.  He reached a hand up, pressing his palm to Jared’s cheek.  When Jared pulled his finger free from Jensen’s lip, it was to swipe his tongue over it.  It was warning enough of what he intended but Jensen was past denying what he wanted.  Jared wasn’t a Wacey anymore and Jensen could have this.

The press of Jared’s lips against his was chaste and the emotions crossing the bond between them were joy and adoration.  The kiss deepened quickly though and the emotions went deeper.  He’d expected the physical feelings, the lust and desire that coursed through them both.  He pulled back from the rest of it, the love that he could feel from Jared.

“Three years you took care of me,” Jared breathed against his lips.  “Of course I love you.”

Jared didn’t give him time to react to that.  He pushed Jensen onto his back and followed him down, covering him with his body.  He deepened the kiss and Jensen wrapped his arms around Jared’s back to hold him there. 

They kissed like that for a few minutes and Jensen wasn’t ready to move past that just yet.  Jared had barely woken up and he didn’t want to push things.  They had a lifetime to get there, and as much as he wanted to be with Jared, the day was taking its toll on him.  He knew Jared was tired too and the kisses slowed, becoming less about passion and more about comfort.  When Jared slid off of Jensen and lay beside him, Jensen couldn’t help but reach out and grab his hip.  As Jensen pulled him closer, Jared brought his fingers up to Jensen’s mouth and hooked his finger under Jensen’s lip.  Jared smiled as he closed his eyes.  “Good night, Jensen.”

Jensen let out a deep breath and closed his eyes, knowing that sleep would be soon in coming.

**

It felt odd waking in the village, but Jensen was learning to get used to it.  Jared was at his side when he woke each morning, his ridiculously happy smile greeting Jensen.  Jensen wasn’t a morning person unless he had a drill sergeant on his ass but he couldn’t help but smile at Jared in the mornings, pull him close, and take his mouth in gentle kisses that became more passionate as they continued.

Each morning, Jensen pulled away from it before it got too far.  Jared understood, though he complained a lot about Jensen being the death of him. 

Today, breakfast was cinnamon rolls with icing that Jared kept licking off his fingers which just reminded Jensen of the times he’d get Jared candy when he was still in the walking coma.  He watched with an indulgent smile until Jared looked up.  He seemed to follow Jensen’s thoughts again and smiled back.  “You weren’t supposed to give me candy, you know.”

“I know.  Bad alpha.”

“They’re here,” Jim came walking into the room where Samantha was cleaning up one of the tables.  “Colin and Brock.”

Samantha nodded, swiping the table with her rag one last time before she threw it on the bar in the back.  “Come on, boys, time you met them.”

There was a small crowd gathered outside of Samantha’s place and Jensen felt the pull of a familiar power.  He shoved Jared backwards, coming to stand between him and the two boys.  The crowd moved around when the older boy followed Jensen’s move precisely.

Jensen could feel Jared’s concern but there was no hiding the flash of amusement his beta felt. 

“Jensen, Brock, both of you calm down!” Jim yelled out.

“I’ll back mine off if you promise to back yours off,” Jared called over Jensen’s shoulder to the young boy that was trying to see past the other alpha. 

“Name’s Colin,” the kid answered Jared.

“Jared.  Now, Jensen, can you let me pass so I can go shake the kid’s hand?”

Jensen let out a deep breath as Jared’s hand reached the nape of his neck, taking in the comfort and confidence that was Jared.  He didn’t know how Jared did it.  Jensen had been confused and disoriented when he’d first woke from the walking coma.  That Jared was able to move on so easily was amazing.  Jared said it was just because he’d kept his memories but Jensen wasn’t so sure about that.

Jensen let Jared go past him, but Jared was smart enough to make the kid come out to him and not get too close to the other alpha.  The two betas shook hands and looked between Jensen and Brock. 

Jensen finally gave.  “I’m not here to fight.”

“Not anymore,” Jim supplied.  Instead of making him pissed though, it made Jensen smile.  Brock seemed to loosen up at that. 

“Sorry.  He just woke up two months ago,” Brock said as if that made all the sense in the world.  Jensen could see that to the others it really didn’t, but Jensen understood.

“A few days after the wall came down,” Jensen said with a nod to Jared.

“No shit?”

Jensen smiled and walked closer, offering the alpha his hand.  “Jensen Ackles.”

“Brock Kelly.  Saw your handiwork when you hit the wall.  You’ve got a real fine touch.  Nothing Colin and I can’t fix, but you would have had the whole thing down if your beta hadn’t flipped out.  What happened anyway?”

Jensen could feel the curiosity of the other man and he let all the fear and concern roll out of him.  “I got hit by some fragments when you guys let off the first round of explosives.  The captain in charge tried to take my beta and leave me behind.”

Brock cringed.  “Mics are not the sharpest.”

Jensen snorted.  “Yeah.  Jared opened up on the entire area to keep everyone from firing at us.”

“You should be proud of him,” Brock said and it might have been condescending from anyone else, but from an alpha outside of the military ranks it seemed like a badge of honor. 

Jensen nodded.  “Damn proud, just don’t tell him.”

Jared was listening in on the whole thing though, and smiled at Colin.  “We’ll wait until they’re gone to start swapping stories.”

Colin agreed.  “It’ll make them worry more about what we’re saying.”

The two betas gave them a mischievous grin in stereo and Jensen sighed.  It was like Jared had a mini-me now.  “Awesome.”

“You boys going to get some work done or just sit around to see how pretty your betas are in the shiny, fluffy daylight?” Jim asked gruffly.

It set them all laughing and then Brock and Colin headed down towards the wall.  Jared and Jensen followed, as did half the villagers still in town.  Most had already been sent off to other villages in their network, but they had a group staying until the enemy was upon them again.  This time, they wouldn’t bother fighting.  They were going to let them leave an empty shell of a village in their wake.

Jared came to stand just behind Jensen with his head resting on his shoulder.  Brock and Colin stood in front of the wreck that was the wall.  Large chunks were lying on the ground on either side of the field and it looked like too massive a job for the two men.  Brock stood behind his beta though and put his hands on his shoulders, as if to ground them both. 

Jensen felt his own bond to Jared opening up as he watched the other two.  Jared’s awareness flowed into his mind, as well as his awe of the two young men. 

“Never went to the Great Cities,” Samantha said as she and Jim joined them.  “Home raised and home grown.  There are other ways.”

As Jensen watched the great stone hunks being lifted off the ground with Colin’s telekinesis, he finally started to believe.  

 

**

 

They’d been alone for three days before Jensen started getting antsy.  The wall was repaired and Jensen couldn’t help but be impressed with the way Brock and Colin had worked together to get it done.  The men and woman of the village didn’t look away from it either.  They fully accepted the alpha and beta into the community and they were genuinely cared for.  It was a nice sentiment and if they could have just run, Jensen would have gone with them but it wasn’t that easy.  Colin and Brock had been hidden from the Unified Cities so no one was looking for them.  Not only had Jared not come home though, he’d attacked their soldiers.  They would be back for him.  Jensen just had no idea what form the attack would take. 

He had run so many scenarios in his head that he was completely taken aback when it did happen.  Two figures walked up to the gate and waited patiently outside for it to be opened.

Jensen released the lever and watched as Collins and his Wacey stepped into town.  He closed the gate behind them and walked down the stairs to stand in front of the EB unit.

“Ackles?  We heard you were hurt.  Are you in need of medical assistance?”

“No, I’m fine.  I was injured in the fight but I’ve healed.  You aren’t here to check my health, though.”

Collins looked at him, then looked around the deserted village.  “What did you do?”

Jensen looked at him for a second, then understood where Collins’s mind had taken him.    “I didn’t punish my Wacey for the attack.  Pileggi ordered the men to leave me behind and take him.  Pileggi screwed up the order, not Jay.”

“Jay?  1003?”

Jensen nodded.  “He’s fine, but Pileggi should have known that a Wacey will always protect himself or his alpha when backed into a corner.  If they’d just trained him to understand, this would have all turned out a lot different.”

“Where is he, Ackles?”

“Around.”

“You aren’t worried about him?”

Jensen knew Collins was confused but Jensen was trying to get a better read on his friend.  Reading thoughts had taken some time to get used to, but it was different with an alpha.  They were trained to keep another person from digging too deeply into their minds.  He had him now, though.

“He woke.  I was hurt and he took care of me.  Woke up by himself.  Didn’t have to sever us or anything.”

Collins flinched back from the words the way any decent alpha would, but Jensen knew Collins had been aware of the issue. 

“Is it… is it as bad as they said?” He asked.

Jensen let out a deep breath and shook his head.  “It’s all bullshit.  He’s not taking over my head or pushing into my space any more than he did when he was asleep.  In fact, I think I’ll keep him.”

“You can’t.”

“I can.  And no one is going to stop us.  I don’t want trouble.  I just want to be left alone so Jared and I can figure things out.”

Collins was confused, unsettled and Jensen knew it was time.  He pushed on the bond to get Jared moving.  A second later Jared walked out of the house closest to the wall and came straight for them.  “Good to officially met you, Collins,” Jared said with a smile.  “I’m Jared.” 

He offered his hand and Collins took it after a few minutes hesitation.  Jared looked at the Wacey then and Jensen felt his apprehension. 

“Yeah, it’s unsettling, isn’t it?”

Jared nodded and Jensen knew it would take a little while to get used to the fact that he’d been just like her.  “You’re hotter though,” Jensen said, teasing Jared as he once had Jensen.  It made Collins’s mouth drop and Jared’s face turn beet red. 

Jared sputtered for a second while Jensen laughed.

“You’re an empath now then, right?” Collins asked awkwardly.  “Are you able to get anything from me?”

“You’re a little worried that Jensen is off his rocker, which he probably is.  He’s been taking care of me for three years so that would do it.  You’re worried about your Wacey, but she isn’t worried.  She knows you’ll protect her.”

“He’s strong,” Collins whispered, looking over at Jensen.  Newly severed betas could rarely get past an alpha’s protective shielding.

“No, Jensen is,” Jared said.  He looked down at his hands and they sizzled and popped with electricity.  “I’m still an electropath.”

“How is that possible?”

“I don’t know,” Jensen cut in, “but Jared has all his memories, Collins.  No blurred remembrance or changed powers.  He’s as strong as they day we bonded and then some.  Plus he’s picking up on my abilities.”

“And you’ve always had mine,” Jared added.

Jensen scowled at him, but Jared seemed to like causing Jensen to sweat like that.  He still didn’t understand how he’d taken Jared’s power before.  He hadn’t been able to do it since Jared told him he had and they’d tried a few times. 

“This is nothing like we expected,” Collins said softly.  “We were expecting you to be severely injured and 1003 to be wild.”

“We’re not, but Collins, we aren’t going back.  They planned to sever us the day after our last mission.  We overheard one of the doctors talking to Pileggi about it.  I would have fought tooth and nail to keep my Wacey until he woke.  Now that he’s awake?  There is nothing this side of hell that is going to take him from me.”

“You can’t mean that.”

“I do.”

“We do,” Jared said, stepping up so that his shoulder brushed Jensen’s back. 

“Jared’s power didn’t change.  He has his memories.  I think it’s because he hasn’t been severed.  We’ve seen another alpha-beta bond and it was nothing like ours.  We don’t have to lose our betas just because the government wants us to.”

“If all this is true, then why would the government do this to us?” Collins asked.

Jensen didn’t have an answer to that.  He felt Jared’s curiosity though, and he looked over his shoulder at his beta. 

“I think we need to find out.  We deserve to know the truth.  Three years of our lives have been taken from us.  We’ve killed and have been injured and we don’t even know why anymore.  Jensen, we need to know.  And we need to let the others know there is another way.”

Collins was looking at his Wacey and she walked forward, touching Jensen’s cheek again.  Jared didn’t try to stop her, but dropped his chin over Jensen’s shoulder to watch and – to Jensen’s great amusement – partially to stake his claim on his alpha. 

“Guess those instincts go both ways,” Jensen said softly as he looked at Jared.

Jared rolled his eyes but the corners of his lips were turned up again.  “Shush.  I attacked a truck full of soldiers to protect you.  You’ve got some catching up to do.”

It was Jensen’s turn to roll his eyes.  “Three years.  Three years and you think one incident proves you care?”

Collins watched their banter in surprise but the Wacey dropped her hand and turned back to Collins, touching him the same way.  He pulled back slightly but she followed him and he allowed the touch.  “I … she isn’t tactile.”

“Maybe she is and she was afraid to try it?” Jared suggested.

“Were you ever concerned with your alpha?” Collins asked.  He didn’t seem to be paying them any attention but Jared answered anyway.

“Yes, but I pushed often until I knew how far I could get away with things.  We aren’t mindless when we’re Waceys.  We’re just not capable of focusing on things or vocalizing explanations for things.”

Jensen figured it was as close to remembering the bond as he was ever going to get and he was happy enough with that.  If he could only remember one bond clearly, he was happy with this one.

“What will you do, Collins?”

The alpha looked at them and sighed.  “I think … I need to know the truth.  1023 deserves the truth as well.”

“She has a name, Misha,” Jared demanded.

“I … I don’t know it.”

“How can you not know?” Jared asked.

“We aren’t given your files,” Jensen explained.  “I got yours out of curiosity after we bonded.  Remember the Doc got on me for calling you Sasquatch?”  Jared nodded.  “Yeah, we’re not supposed to call you anything other than Wacey, beta, or your identification number.  It’s to keep the bond from getting too close.”

Jared shook his head.  “Does any of this make sense, knowing what we know now?”

Jensen bit on his bottom lip and Misha sighed.  “I’m not ready to walk away, but we need answers.  There are over 100 EB units in the Great Cities.  200 Psychics that could be having their abilities stripped away without understanding why or even how.  How can I help?”

Jensen watched Collins’s Wacey step up behind him, touching his back the way Jared so often did to him.  “How can we help?” Collins corrected.

Jensen smiled at him and looked at Jay.  “Guess we need a way in.  Hopefully without making any big holes.”

 

**

 

Getting into the medical facility was easy enough.  They weren’t expecting anyone to try to break in and other than regular security the worst they had to deal with were locked doors.  They had both been stationed at Cameron for a while during the bonding so while they didn’t know the layout well, they did know the name of the head doctor.  They went to his office first and began picking through files. 

Misha sat at the computer with his Wacey at his side.  She was a technopath and made pretty quick work of the facility’s security so the doctor’s computer was no trouble.  They weren’t sure what they were looking for though.  Misha was transferring any files that looked like they might be of interest onto a portable device so they could look closer later but it was all a crapshoot. 

Jared let out a heavy sigh, disrupting the silence that had surrounded them.  “Jensen, can you feel the doctor?”

“It is possible he’s in the complex,” Misha assured Jensen before he could respond.  “He lives on the base.”

Jensen sighed.  “Alright.  Let’s see what I can find out.”

Jensen still wasn’t very sophisticated in his touch, but he found the doctor quickly enough.  He tried to be subtle with his eavesdropping in the other man’s mind but he was afraid another telepath would be able to see that he’d been there.  Telepathy left a certain signature for a short time after someone had touched another mind so they had to get out of there before the man came across another telepath. 

There was a healthy dose of paranoia in the man and Jensen had to push past his ego and emotional superiority before he could really get any information.  He let out a small laugh.  “He’s afraid of Misha and his Wacey.  He isn’t keeping much of his stuff on the computer anymore.  You might get some information, but it’s piecemeal.”  He let out a deep breath then, trying to settle into the man’s mind.  “Most of it will be in the paperwork.  He’s… he’s thinking about retiring someone.”

“Killing them?” Jared asked.

“No, I mean retirement.  Sending someone away where no one else will find them,” Jensen clarified. 

“Looks like we should start there, then,” Jared’s fingers pressed into Jensen’s thigh, a reminder that he was there with him.  “See why they would send someone away.”

“He’s got three things his thoughts are circling on, over and over again.  Retirement, research, and Misha.  He’s starting to get worried that something happened to Misha and his Wacey.”

“Alona.”  Misha broke in.

“What?”

“I found her file.  Her name is Alona.”

Jared smiled at Misha for a moment and Jensen could feel the pride in Jared.  It was a long step from seeing a Wacey as something to protect to them being someone to protect.  “It’s nice to meet you, Alona,” Jensen said.  She turned her head to look at him and Jensen felt it for the first time, curiosity from the Wacey.    

He didn’t say anything to Collins but went back to digging.  When he got what he could from the doctor they turned back to the files.  Dr. Anderson wasn’t thinking about details, just a general concern about things, so Jensen had gone as far as he could there. 

They’d been at it for a while before a sharp inhale of breath let them know Jared had found something.  “A longitudinal research study they’ve been working on.  It’s-” Jared closed his eyes and Jensen could feel the anger and terror that Jared felt.  “They’re doing it on purpose.  They know that severing the bond destroys the fever-talent.  With a second severing, the powers begin to fade after a few years until the people who had them lose them completely.”

“Second severing?” Misha asked.

“The first when the beta is bonded and wakes.  They sever the bond between alpha and beta.  The second is when the beta becomes an alpha themselves.”

“That’s why it bothered Jim that they didn’t allow regular people to be bonded,” Jensen guessed.  “The military knew that they were taking our abilities away from us.”

“The second severing also reverses the healing abilities we have and seems to shorten the lifespan once an alpha no longer has a beta,” Jared said as he kept flipping through the pages of the report.

“Something you might find interesting as well,” Misha called from the computer screen.  “They were watching the two of you closely.  Your bond with Cassidy wasn’t deep enough and they feared it was over too quickly for the severing to take hold.  They feared they’d changed your ability but not actually weakened it.  They were going to sever you from Jared and force another bond on you just to make sure you were severed twice.”

“What the hell?” Jensen demanded.  He was pissed and he could feel Jared’s anger growing as well. 

“Cassidy never established a firm hold on you and she documented everything that was abnormal about it in her reports.  They’ve been watching you, hoping you’d do the same but they seem to think you were hiding things from them.”

Jensen shrugged when Misha looked at him.  “I never told them about the Wacey’s reactions to me, nor did I tell them about Jay.  I didn’t think they’d believe me if I told them how aware of me he was.”

“They’re supposed to be aware of you,” Misha pointed out.

“Your Wacey ever make you coffee because they knew you’d had a crappy morning and needed the extra kick when you finished your own?”

“Really?” Misha voice sounded more astonished than angry and Jensen was grateful for that.

“He did things like that all the time.  I didn’t tell anyone, but if they were watching me that close maybe they noticed?”

Misha went back to the file then sighed heavily.  There was a sadness in him and Jensen wasn’t sure he wanted to know.  “They lied to you,” he said finally.  “I’m pulling the rest of our files, but … Jensen they told your family that you died from the fever.  They never turned away from you.”

Jensen was too stunned to speak.  The room was silent as Misha’s fingers moved over the keyboard.  “They lied to all our families.  Every family.  Everyone is told that their child died.  No one suspects anything because everyone knows about alphas and betas so someone’s child had to survive, right?  Jared’s family has been on their wanted list for a long while because they refused to believe it.”

Jensen’s eyes closed and he had to close himself off to the pain that sprung up in the others. 

“Don’t shut me out, Jensen,” Jared begged, a hand gripping Jensen’s chin to make him look up.  “Don’t leave me alone.”

Jensen gasped but he couldn’t let go of the tight control he had on his emotional connection.  “I can’t,” he tried to explain.  “It’s too much, too close.”

Jared understood then because he was pulling Jensen against him and even as he was engulfed in Jared’s arms, he felt a small, feminine hand slip into his palm.  The Wacey wasn’t aware of them in the traditional sense of the word, but her hand gripped his tight even as she stared up at the lamp on the wall. 

“We’ll find them all, Jensen,” Jared promised when Jensen let out a shaky breath.  “We’ll find our parents and make this right. We’ll find a way to make this right for everyone.”

 

**

 

“You really think they’ll be here soon?” Jensen asked as they waited. 

Jared poked at the bond and Jensen let out a deep breath, unaware that he’d started shutting himself off again.  “Soon.”

The house was exactly as Jensen had remembered it.  There were still pictures of him hanging on the walls, pictures from his younger days when he was playing with his brother and sister.  There was a picture of Jensen and his dad fishing, and one of Jensen and his siblings helping their mother cook for some holiday.  He hadn’t dared go up to see if he still had a bedroom.  He wasn’t sure he wanted to know if they had moved past his death or if they still kept a shrine in the form of an untouched bedroom.

“They’ll love you, Jensen.”

“What if they’ve moved past it and I just hurt them?  What if they’re upset about who I am?”

Jared knelt in front of him and smiled.  “Then they’re fools, but you’re pretty smart and I always figured you got that from them.  Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt, alright?”  

Jared had a way of making things seem lighter so Jensen tried to relax.  They were sitting in the living room, waiting.  They figured it was better than a public scene out front.  The longer they were missing the more likely someone would be watching his parent’s house, looking for him.  There wasn’t much of a chance of him showing up, not after the lies they’d told him, but it was always a possibility and he figured the mics must be getting desperate to get Jared back.  Jensen had heard the news earlier and it sounded like insurgence was on the rise.  The newscaster reported that after years of quiet on that front, there were rebellions springing up all around the Great Cities.  Considering how many rebellions he and Jared had ended in the last three years, he was surprised to find out that no one had known just how many there were.  Great Mid City was getting hit hard with Jared and Jensen gone.

The lock on the front door jiggled and Jensen stood, nearly knocking Jared over as he scrambled back.   

The front door was closed and it took a moment before the man and women who entered to realize they weren’t alone.  The man put himself in front of the woman.  “Get out,” he commanded.  “Take whatever you want, but leave us alone.”

“Dad?”

The man gave a visible start at the name, but a second later his eyes opened wide.  “Jensen?”

“Jensen!”  His mother came rushing forward and he was being engulfed by both his parents. 

He wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that, but it was Jared who broke the scene.   “How can I reach Mac and Josh?” he asked. 

Jensen’s parents stepped back then, even though his mother kept her hand in his.  Jensen knew they were confused and he was nearly overwhelmed by the protective surge of emotions that came from them.  He gasped and his knees buckled before he could cut off his emotions from theirs.  He should have fallen, but there were strong arms around him, holding him up. 

“Got you, Jensen,” Jared said softly.  Jensen let out a shaky breath.  “Just concentrate on me.  Come back to me.  Walk it back just like you showed me.”

He felt himself lowered onto a chair and when he finally had his emotions in control he let out another deep breath.  “I’m okay,” he whispered when he realized he was so closed up that Jared couldn’t feel anything from him.  “Just need to hold onto it for a while.”

Jared nodded and squeezed Jensen’s knee before taking a seat next to Jensen on the couch.  His parents were watching them with obvious concern.  “Mom, Dad, this is Jared, my beta.”

“Your what?”

They knew what alpha-beta bonds were, but he could understand how they’d be confused about it in the context of what they were seeing.  Jensen’s head was still slightly spinning with everything he’d felt and it was Jared who took up the story. 

“They lied to us,” he said simply.  “They lied to all of us and we’re going to try to make it right.  Jensen wanted to find you.  They told him you didn’t want to be with him after he got his fever-talent.  We just found evidence that they told you he was dead and we had to come find you.”

“Jared?” His mother’s voice was hesitant but she didn’t allow that to stop her.  “Do you need help finding your parents?”

Jensen pulled out of himself then, taking Jared’s hand in his.  “Jared’s parents disappeared.  We tried to find them but they’re just gone.  I’m his family, Mama.”

“He helped bring you to us?” his father asked.

“They left me to die and he stayed with me.  He took care of me even when he shouldn’t have been able to.  The only reason I’m still alive is because of him.”

Tears filled his mother’s eyes and his father hugged her close.  He nodded as he looked over her head to the two of them, sitting on the couch.  “Then we’re his family too.”

 

**

 

 It wasn’t as easy as he’d have liked, but Jensen couldn’t help but be proud of the people he found himself surrounded by.  The villagers had taken them in again, in their new location, immediately sweeping them back into the fold with Jensen’s family in tow. 

There were rumors about Jared’s family too, now that they knew to look.  When Jensen mentioned Jared’s family, Jim began digging and promised to see what he could find out.  That lie was why he’d walked away to begin with.  He didn’t know the rest of it and once Jared had spelled it out for him, he’d gone on a three day bended before Samantha had Colin throw him into the lake to sober him up. 

The next morning he’d come back determined.

It was Jensen’s little sister who figured it all out.  She was only eleven and she couldn’t have remembered him from before, but she’d clung to him and cried into his arms when she first saw him.  They’d apparently kept his memory alive, not mourning but celebrating who he’d been and the man he might have become.  They were sitting around the table after dinner, his mother helping Samantha clean up when Mackenzie had climbed up into Jared’s lap.

“Uncle Jared?”

“Yeah pumpkin?” he asked.  She was too old to be sitting on his lap really but Mackenzie seemed to take him in like a lost brother, too, and she seemed to sense when Jared was feeling left out on the familial affection.  Jensen was keeping an eye on her because of it and he’d mentioned it to Jim as well.

“Why don’t we just show people?  It would take too long to go knocking on everyone’s door, so just put it on TV.  I was reading a book last week where they had a pirate TV station and sent out their own messages.  We could just show them our story.”

The room was silent until Jared smiled at her, kissing her forehead.  “You are the smartest Ackles I know,” he said as he looked up at Jensen.  “It’s simple.  Get in, get out.  We just need to record the message and see if Misha and Alona can help us.”

Misha and his Wacey had gone to find their families as well but they’d come back to the village a few days before.  “After what happened with Alona’s family, I think he’ll definitely want to help.”

They were all in shock about that one.  Alona’s family had been killed outright when they refused to give Alona over to the Great City.  The mics had removed her from the home and staged a robbery the following night.  Misha was grief-stricken over it and Jensen couldn’t help but wonder if Alona might choose to stay in the bond the way Jared had, just to stay where she was safe and cared for.

“Alright,” Jensen said with a sigh.  “Mama, Dad, are you up for this?”

They both nodded without hesitation and his brother clasped Jensen’s shoulder.  “We’d do it for you, bro, but we’ll also do it for the others who can’t yet,” he said, looking over at Alona who stared at the lamps again.

“What’s her thing with lights?” Jensen asked, caught off-guard by the realization.        

Misha just shrugged.  “I can never get her to do anything in the morning when it’s sunny out.  She likes to play in the sunlight.”

Jared watched her with a fond smile on his face, closing his eyes.  “Jay?”

“We all have our things that give us comfort.  She has lights and shadows and how they play.”

“You know this how?”

“Aware but unable to respond, not dead, remember?  I had plenty of time to watch her when you and the others were in training.”

“What was your thing?” Mackenzie asked innocently.

Jared smiled as he reached forward.  “See this right here?” he asked, bringing his finger up to Jensen’s bottom lip.  “That dip right there.  It changed all the time and every time it changed I was fascinated all over again.”

“Really?” Misha asked. 

“Thanks Jay, Collins needed another excuse to tease me.”

Misha and Jared laughed but Jensen could feel the speculative looks from the others and he knew they’d finally put the last of the Jared and Jensen puzzle pieces together. 

Jared’s eyes danced with mirth but he sobered up a second later.  “Alright, so we need to make a video.  Who has the equipment that we need?”

 

**

 

It was the second time they’d snuck into Cameron and Jensen couldn’t help but think this was going to go wrong in all the best – meaning dangerous – ways.  They’d had word that the original village had been attacked again and the wall was down.  They’d left some people in the village to make it look inhabited but other than setting up a ring of explosions to go off on a timer once the trigger was set, no one stayed to fight. 

It might not be a lot, but it was one of those charges that had downed Jensen to begin with.  Jim might be a doctor but he’d become a hell of a demolitions man in his days since then. 

The corridors were quiet as Jensen and Jared waited.  Misha and Alona were the ones actually sending the message out and the pair were left to cover their backs.  It felt wrong to be the back-up.  He and Jared were usually the main event, in and out with a strike to cripple the enemy before they could launch a real defensive.    This wasn’t a military strike though against a rebel force.  It was Misha’s show to run and Jensen just hoped it went as well as their last visit.

“Jensen, you feel anything?”

Jensen looked across the hall to see Jared watching him.  He let out a deep breath.  “It’s not like I’m an alarm system, Jay,” Jensen said softly

“You’re the best thing we’ve got,” Jared reminded him. 

Jensen might not like keeping the bond blown wide open after he’d been practically incapacitated by his family’s emotions but Jared wasn’t wrong.  Jensen could feel others’ emotions and while that didn’t really make him a proximity alarm, it did give him a little heads up that someone might be coming.

He opened the bond up and spun immediately, gun trained on the alpha walking down the hallway.  She didn’t seem surprised to see him, just that she was under the gun and not the other way around.  Jensen took a deep breath because her entire psyche screamed of need.    She wanted Jensen back, wanted all of her betas and she was having a hard time with her current orders because of it.

“Cassidy,” Jensen said softly.

“Jensen.”

Her voice was cold and she was trying to shield her thoughts from him but her emotions were all over the place.  Part of him craved the connection to her and he understood enough now to know that it was the incomplete bond between them that the others had tried to sever.  They weren’t bound anymore, but there were threads of want that tried to twine back together from both sides and Jensen had to fight to keep from letting it happen.

“Back off, Cassidy,” Jared called out from behind him.  “He might be caught by whatever you’re doing but you so much as twitch and I will make sure severing is the least of your troubles.”

She started at that and it gave Jensen the peace to regain himself again.  “Cassidy,” Jensen said, “Katie, you don’t have to do this.  I know you don’t want to lose him.  New bond and you’re already too close to him, aren’t you?”  She didn’t say anything but he could feel it.  “You don’t have to be separated.  I know it doesn’t seem like what I’m saying can be true, but look at Jay, Katie.  Look at 1003.  He’s mine and I’m his and you can have that too.”

“No, this is just something you did.  It’s just you.”

“You gave me this Katie,” Jensen said softly.  “You cared for me too much and too wildly and my heart refused the bond.  It made me free of their confinement.  You can be, too.  You’ve been severed four times already Katie.  I’ve seen the research they’ve done.  You won’t live much longer.  The next one will likely kill you.  And they’ll let it happen.  They’ll do it because they just want to find a way to destroy us all before we can become too many and too strong to take the world back from them.”

“You’re a liar, Jensen!” She screamed.

He could feel how much she wanted to believe him, but she had been indoctrinated too many times.  They’d pushed her hard and she’d broken.  There was no way that she could leave the Great Cities no matter how she might believe Jensen.

“Katie, please.  You were my alpha.  You’re an empath.  Feel my words.  You know I wouldn’t lie to you.”

Jensen felt her tighten her control, refusing to let him in or to seek him out.  “No, they were right.  You’re just sick and you don’t know what you’re saying.  It’s the Wacey.  He woke crazy because you weren’t severed.”

That wasn’t what they were taught could happen but she was grasping for anything that would explain away what she needed to be untrue.  “Katie!”

He tried to push past her barriers, but she raised the gun then, firing at him.  Jensen spun away from her, taking cover in the branches of a hallway.  “Shit,” he cursed as he looked over and saw Jared on the other side of the hallway.  “Anytime now Collins,” Jensen muttered under his breath as he looked out into the hallway and quickly ducked back.  Jared fired a few rounds and Jensen knew he was afraid to use his electricity in the building.  He didn’t want to risk hitting something that would mess up the broadcast.  He had no idea how they were getting it out on the air but Alona knew how to do it, Collins had said without hesitance.  She’d been almost aware when he said it and Jensen knew that the Wacey was close to waking.  He just hoped it didn’t happen in the middle of a fire fight. 

Bullets continued to graze the walls but they’d managed to keep from getting hit.  Jared had a cut on his cheek from debris off a tile that had been hit but he was fine other than that.  Jensen tried to reach Misha to get him to hurry it up but he had no idea if the other alpha had gotten his message.  Their comms were useless in a military base where any channel they used would be monitored.  It was only a matter of time before someone came to investigate the sound of the gun fire. 

The building shook for a second and Jensen stumbled to get his footing.  He saw Jared do the same and he knew then that Misha was done.  They just had to get the hallway contained. 

A second later and Misha and Alona were back at Jensen’s side.  Misha took a look at the situation and began looking for an exit.  “Ackles, can your Wacey hit the support beams in the middle of the hall?”  Jensen nodded before rounding the hall again and firing.  “Do it.  That should bring down the ceiling.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Yes, but we’ll be on the other side of the collapse than the mics and they’re on their way.”

Jensen looked over at Jared to see if the other man caught it all.  “Jensen, I don’t have that kind of control.”

Jensen nodded.  “We do.”

Jared seemed to understand what he wanted then.  Jensen took a deep breath and opened the bond between Jared until it was a flaring sun in his mind.  He didn’t think about what he needed done, just told Jared to do it.  Jared was just the conduit and Jensen was the one that controlled the power but Jensen still thought of it the other way.  It was the only way he knew to control the power that ran through Jared’s body. 

He looked at the ceiling where Misha said to hit and he let loose with a large shot.  He felt Jared’s release of the power and they all struggled to keep their feet as the hallway rumbled around them again.  Misha grabbed Jensen’s arm and pulled him out into the open way and Jared was at this side, scrambling to the exit as the roof of the first floor caved in around them.

“Did you get it?” Jensen demanded.

Misha smiled.  “Yep.  Even better.  Alona left a back door for them to shut it off.  When they think they have it shut off, it will go dormant for twenty four hours and restart again.  When it restarts it will begin infecting other communications relays.  The Ackles message will get out to everyone and they don’t have a hope of stopping it.”

“And the other part?”

“The information you asked for is there, too.  Anyone can contact you at the number you left.  If someone tries to trace it, they’ll eat up their own lines to try to contain it and nullify their own search.”

“Damn, you two know what you’re doing.”

Misha smiled.  “It’s what we do.  Nice work on the wall by the way.”

Jared leaned forward and grinned.  “That’s what we do.”

“Yeah,” Jensen said with a weary sigh.  “Now, let’s get home so we can see what sort of BS story gets fabricated about it in the morning.”

 

**   

 

It wasn’t the same.  Jensen watched the gate open and even though the wall looked much the same as it had in the first village, it wasn’t.  He could feel Jared laughing at him in his head but luckily he was keeping his outward amusement to a simple smile. 

The village wasn’t new but it was obvious that a lot of repair had been done recently.  The buildings were newly painted and new shingles covered the roofs.  The streets were destroyed, nothing left but rock and dirt where concrete and blacktop had once allowed cars to pass, but the rocks were thickly covering the ground and no weeds popped up in the middle of the street. 

People were milling around, moving from shop to shop to see to their daily business.  Jensen and Jared rated a look or two but no one knew them.  Their guns were stowed in the packs on their back and there was nothing obvious about who they were.  Except for the way Jared walked so close to Jensen, one shoulder constantly brushing his back as they moved.

There was a commotion down the street and before Jensen knew what was happening, someone came flying at Jared.  It was a teenage girl, but instinct kicked in before he realized it and he had her in his arms and held away from Jared before he could see the same hazel eyes and pink lips.

Those hazel eyes were regarding him with surprise and well concealed anger.  He wouldn’t have recognized the emotion if he couldn’t feel it in her. 

“Meggie?”

Jared’s hand traveled down Jensen’s arm until he was covering Jensen’s hand on her wrist.  It was enough for Jensen to know that Jared wanted him to let go but to stay close. 

“Jared?”

Jensen stepped back and then the girl’s arms were around Jared’s neck, pressing kisses all over his face.

“You came back!  They said you were coming, but we haven’t seen you in so long.”

A crowd was coming towards them and Jensen saw their friends from the village, along with his own family.  There was another group of people he didn’t know, but he didn’t need to feel them out to see the way they watched Jared and the girl in his arms.  This was Jared’s family.

Jensen thought about stepping away to let Jared have his time, but he remembered that Jared had only been 10 when he’d gone into the fevers.  He’d been in the fever stage a long time, followed by another long coma before he woke up to become Jensen’s beta.  This was Jared’s family, but they were practically strangers to him now.  Jensen was his family and until Jared got to know them again, he wasn’t going to back away and leave his Wacey to them.

He got a smack to the stomach and looked up at Jared who was glaring at him.  “Don’t think of me like that,” he said.  It was a fake glare though, and Jensen could feel the humor behind it.

“Sorry, years of trying not to call you Jay in my head.  Might take a while to break.”

“You’re going to need therapy, aren’t you?”

“It’s possible.”  He said it straight faced and Jared started laughing again before he turned back to the people surrounding them.  He was quickly engulfed in waiting arms and Jensen just basked in the affection and love he felt radiating from them.  Since he’d become an empath, there hadn’t been much in the way of happy reunions and it was nice to enjoy it.  He felt his own parents come up beside him and his Mom pulled him into a hug.  His brothers and sister were back in their houses, letting Jared and Jensen get settled in before they bombarded them.  Jensen was grateful for it, and when his mother pulled back to tell him about it he just smiled.  “I know, Mom.  Thanks.”

It still surprised her that Jensen could read her mind, but he figured in time she would become comfortable with it.  His sister had started throwing out random thoughts to him when they’d last met, and to his surprise his father was doing it now.  There was a litany of ‘proud of you, son,’ and ‘you did good,’ and then the details of how they’d passed word through the network to find Jared’s family and get them to the village in time for Jared to arrive.

He didn’t have the gratitude in words, so he simply opened himself up and allowed his father to feel it.  The man wasn’t an empath but Jensen was able to push his emotions on others and he saw the tears in his father’s eyes before he was pulled into a hug.

“You boys probably need to get settled in and changed.  We’ll get some food on the table for you.  Unless something has changed drastically, I’m guessing Jared will still eat enough for three.”

Jared grinned at Samantha and pulled her into a hug.  “I’m still a growing boy,” he said with a laugh.

Jensen took the opportunity to smack Jared’s stomach.  “Grow much more Sasquatch and they’ll have to raise the roofs on the house just to get you in the door.”

“Come on then,” Jared’s mom pulled at his wrist.  “Let’s get you home and cleaned up.  We have a room set up for you already.”

Jensen felt Jared’s surprise but then Jensen should have known Jared would be too caught up in the others that he didn’t borrow Jensen’s talent.  The whole Padalecki family was set to take Jared by force if they had to.  They didn’t know their son though, and Jensen didn’t doubt the outcome of the conversation.  When he looked up at Samantha she smiled and tapped her head.  He took a peek into her mind and there was the image of a house down the street and she, the villagers, and Jensen’s family had set it up for them.  He sent a mental thank you to her and watched her blush at the thought before waving his thanks away.

He turned his attention back to Jared who was staring at his mother still.  “Jared, we’re just down the street.”  Jensen felt Jared’s pull on the bond and he knew Jared was tapping into his powers now.

“Mom, I love you and I’m so glad we found you safe, but I didn’t come here to leave Jensen.”

“Jared, we don’t need to decide that now.  We just want you to come get cleaned up.”

Jared sighed.  “Mom, I’m bonded to Jensen and that’s not changing.”

“It was forced on you.  You didn’t have a choice.”

“It was forced on him too.  Twice.  We didn’t have a choice when it happened, but we had a choice to go back and get the bond severed.  We chose not to.”

Jensen took a step forward until he was at Jared’s back.  He wasn’t claiming Jared in any way, just showing his support.  He didn’t think Jared believed the thought any more than Jensen did, but he wasn’t going to admit how badly his protective instinct wanted to just throw Jared over his shoulder and walk him down to their home.

“Our home?” Jared turned to look at him. 

“Oh hell, get out of my head Jay, I’m trying to be nice.”

“Since when?”

“Shut up,” Jensen groused but Jared was smiling, dimples and all, and Jared’s father seemed to understand.

“Doesn’t mean you can’t come clean up with us though, does it?” his father asked.  “We’d just like to get a chance to see you again, son.  Jensen can come too.”

Jared’s mom didn’t look pleased at the invitation but Jensen stopped any such thoughts.  “Why don’t Jared and I get our bags stowed in our home and clean up.  We’ll meet you at Samantha’s for dinner and you can have Jared after?  I wouldn’t mind a chance to see my own family,” he admitted with a wink for his mother.

“Perfect,” Jared said, pulled Jensen past the rest of the crowd before anyone else could object. 

They were half way down the street when Jared looked at Jensen.  “You do know where we’re going, don’t you?”

Jensen laughed as he wrapped an arm over Jared’s shoulder.   “Does it really matter?”

Jared stopped him in the middle of the street and kissed him softly.  “No it really doesn’t.  It doesn’t matter where we are, as long as we have each other.”

 

 

 

 

 


	2. The Rest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was exasperated and scared and so in love he couldn’t see straight. Jensen understood perfectly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the December Drabble Days

“What the hell do I do now?”  
  
Jensen smiled as Misha joined him at Samantha’s Kitchen.  Jensen wasn’t afraid to take advantage of her fondness of him to get a good seat for meal times.  
  
“Alona?” Jensen asked.  
  
“She’s everywhere and I don’t know what to do.”  
  
He was exasperated and scared and so in love he couldn’t see straight.  Jensen understood perfectly.  When Jared walked in a moment later with Alona at his side, both their smiles turned to their Alphas.  
  
“You’re already doing what you need to do.”  
  
“I am?”  
  
“Just love her.  You’ll figure out the rest.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the spn_reversebang challenge on live journal. The art for this story was done by the amazing nrrrdygrrrl. As soon as I saw this prompt I had so many ideas. Beta'd by the awesome matchboximpala :P


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